


The Hijacked Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noire

by ErisLuna35



Series: The Hijacked Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noire [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Original Work
Genre: Angst, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Demiromantic Character, Demisexual Character, F/M, Foreshadowing, Gen, Headcanons on how the miraculous works, I have zero confidence in writing canon characters, I promise things are leading up to something, Legacies, Meta, Miraculous Ladybug AU, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square-Free Form, Original Character(s), Original Characters replace the cast, Other, Platonic Relationships, Shipping, Sibling Bonding, Slow Burn, This story does not believe in a Status Quo, Twins, especially around glamour, especially on Blair's side, it will get darker and edgier much much later, may be discussed later, setting things up for future archs, trope speak, vague references to previous miraculous users, will add tags as this goes on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-07-11 00:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15960503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErisLuna35/pseuds/ErisLuna35
Summary: Shizuke Midorikawa was just an average boy who lives in an apartment above a flower shop with his grandmother.Blair Crawford was a fairly famous girl who models part time with her brother but dreams to be something else.They had nothing in common… Until a monster attacked their school and they received magical jewelry that allows them to transform into superheroes.An ML AU where OC's replace the entire cast... Or is it?





	1. A Normal Boy With A Secret

**Author's Note:**

> My first contribution to any fandom, and this is what I come up with.  
> I've read a few stories with a premise similar to this in a way (be it historical or set in the future), and as fun as they were I was hoping for something a little more different than what's canon even though canon is awesome. I wanted to see how other characters can handle a universe like ML. So I decided to make my own story.  
> Also, I'm not confident in handling the characterizations of canon characters so this happened. Tikki and Plagg are challenging enough as it is.  
> This is actually more of a writing practice and character exploration for my OC's.  
> I just hope they don't come off as sue-ish even though they're a little tropy at times.  
> Comments and criticisms are very much appreciated.

The sunset’s orange hues gently lit the barely occupied classroom. The teacher was standing to the side, quietly watching over the students. The sound of pencils furiously scribbling on paper were the only sounds in the stuffy room.

Among the students was me- the dark haired, bespectacled boy sitting right next to the door- eyes locked on my test paper, writing a hundred words a minute.

I really really really need to go. But I can’t just leave! I already missed this exam the first time; I can’t afford to miss this now. I’m lucky I haven’t been kicked out of my scholarship! I’m not about to push it!

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket for what felt like the millionth time in the past three minutes.

_Ladyblog: Akuma Alert! There’s an akuma currently attacking at -_

Hawkmoth! This is not an appropriate time to be causing trouble! Doesn’t that evil woman have anything better to do at this hour?!

… Oh no, I actually wrote that on my essay. I made a move to erase it, but the eraser slipped out of my hands and bounced on the floor. I jumped out of my seat, the suddenness of my action made my chair fall back loudly clattering to the ground. I scrambled to get everything back in order. When I finally settled, I glanced around the room.

Everyone’s eyes were on me. I shrunk back into my seat as I tried my best to ignore them. The orange haired teacher walked over to me carefully, like he’s approaching a cornered animal.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Oh uh, nothing, Mr. Ross…” I muttered sheepishly.

The teacher accepted my answer and went back to his spot.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Focus. I’ve studied this all night. I know all the answers. I can do this!

I looked back at where I left off on my essay and started writing furiously. I have to get out of here fast. Time is of the essence.

The people of Helios are counting on me.

Writing down the last words, I did a mental happy dance.

“DONE!!!” I yelled, jumping out of my seat.

Everyone’s eyes were on me once again, but I no longer care. I walked over to the teacher and passed him my paper.

“Already?” the teacher asked in disbelief. “You’re not gonna double-check this?”

“No, Mr. Ross,” I said, shifting from one foot to another, ready to run out the door at a moment’s notice. I looked at the clock above the teacher’s head. This makeup test was supposed to take an hour to finish. I finished it in 17 minutes. I can only pray I didn’t mess up any of my answers. “I’m in a hurry. It’s an emergency!”

The teacher looked over the paper, checking for any blanks. Finding none, he tucked the paper into his folder. “Alright. You’re dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir!”

I grabbed my things and bolted out of the room.

_**My name is Shizuke Midorikawa. Age 15, born on May 4th. Just a normal boy with a normal life.**_

Dodging every student that gets in my way, I quickly made my way to the men’s room.

_**But there’s something about me that nobody knows yet. Because I have a secret…**_

As soon as we were alone, a tiny ladybug sprite flew out of my pocket as I checked on what the Ladyblog has to say about the latest akuma attack. The akuma hasn’t moved from the park.

“Shizuke, let’s go!” Tikki urged.

“Right. No time to waste,” I held out my sleeves, my cuff links, my Miraculous, surging with power ready to be called out. “Tikki! Spots On!”

Tikki flew into my cuffs and awakened the power within them. In a flash of pink light, the power flowed all over me, covering me like a second skin. In place of my usual long sleeved black button up, red tie, and white sweater vest was a skin tight red suit with big black polka dots. My dark hair became a bluer shade than normal, and my glasses hiding my brown eyes were replaced by a red, polka dotted domino mask. I have a belt that held my weapon, a yoyo. My cuff links, the source of my power, were now on a pair of black gloves.

“Time to save the day,” I said to get myself pumped up and jumped out of the nearest window.

_**I am one of the heroes of Helios City.**_

0-0-0-0-0

I swung across the Helios City. The cool bite of the early January wind, old stone and brick structures blending with modern stream lined buildings, people cheering as they saw one of their heroes swinging by, roofs and sidewalks sprinkled with the last specks of snow from winter, greenery slowly reclaiming their rightful place, the complex labyrinth of red stone bridges, glowing lights of the street lamps surrounding the city founder Luke’s Statue at City Square, the castle of Ashworth standing proud in the distance as the heart of the city…

This is my home.

Seeing the humongous century-old tree of Lucia Park, I knew I was close to where the akuma was causing trouble. There’s a flash of light somewhere near the park’s gate. I stopped on a nearby building, scanning the area before jumping in.

Right in the middle of danger, I spotted a tall gangly brunet in a bright orange checkered shirt dodging the akuma’s beam attacks while gleefully streaming everything to the Ladyblog.

“Weep ladies of Helios! Blake Crawford will soon belong to me! For I, Poppyrazzi, will create a world for the two of us with my trusty camera!” she loudly declared, pausing in her rapid fire shots.

“Um, you just said that exact same rant like, a few minutes ago. Is there anything else you’d like to tell my viewers?” mocked the boy in orange checkers in a tone that reminds me of a dumb blonde valley girl.

The akuma screeched in anger and returned to shooting at the Ladyblogger.

“Stop getting in my way you FREAK!”

“Says the one dressed like a supervillain from the eighties! Your magenta hair does not work with all the teal in your evil costume!”

I groaned at the Ladyblogger’s antics. He’s going to get himself killed one of these days if he keeps this up. He seems to be the only one left in the park.

Keeping track of the akuma’s beams, I carefully timed my swing and grabbed him. As soon as I landed on a branch, my enhanced reflexes picked up an in-coming beam and made me jump to the next branch while carrying him over my shoulder. I moved from branch to branch, careful not to lead the akuma to the park’s exit to contain the attack, going higher and higher.

I eventually reached a safe enough place to perch. While the akuma knows we’re here, there are enough branches down below to protect us from her beams. As a bonus, it’s high enough that the Ladyblogger couldn’t just get down and get too close to film the akuma again.

Speaking of, he hasn’t stopped his livestream.

The Ladyblogger’s brown hair is in its usual disarray, his light brown skin lightly flushed from dodging the akuma, his clothes had spots of grass stains and dust… Most importantly, there’s not a single injury in sight.

He beams a toothpaste commercial-worthy smile as he switches his phone’s focus to me.

“Ladybug!” his reddish brown eyes are practically sparkling in excitement. “You’re finally here!”

“And you’re putting yourself in danger. AGAIN,” as if to punctuate my point, a beam shot by right next to us. The branch she shot disappeared and a photo floated down like a leaf.

Down below, the akuma has gone quiet for a few seconds. Hawkmoth.

“You!” the akuma pointed at me. “Hand over your Miraculous!”

“NEVER!!!” I shouted back. I would never let my cufflinks, my Miraculous, fall into the wrong hands!

The akuma roared in frustration and continued to shoot at us with the accuracy of a temperamental toddler.

I steered my attention back to the Ladyblogger.

“Keagan Gerald Aurelio-Ashworth! How many times do I have to tell you NOT to directly engage akumas?!”

Keagan, or ‘Kaji’ as I call him when I’m a civilian, had the decency to look sheepish as he bowed his head down, his untameable brown hair flopping down with his mood.

“Sorry, I was just trying to help since Chat Noire’s already captured and...”

“What?!” I grabbed Kaji by the shoulders and shook him for answers, “What happened to her?!"

“The akuma, Poppyrazzi, has the power to trap things into pictures with her camera’s beams. Chat Noire took a shot for Blake, the target, and well…”

“She ended up like me over here,” said a familiar female voice that can only belong to Fiona ‘Fuyu’ Kuznetsov.

“Sorry Fuyu,” Kaji sheepishly apologized as he pulled out a picture from his breast pocket, offering it to me.

I snatched the picture and took a closer look. There stood a petite pale skinned androgynous girl tapping her foot impatiently with her hands on her waist and her big sharp icy blue eyes glaring up at me. She has short light pink hair growing out of its former pixie cut under her red baseball cap. And the shine of her silver headphones and four ear piercings stood out in stark contrast to her black and blue punk outfit.

Other than the fact that she’s trapped in a picture, I’m relieved to see she’s more or less okay. It seems Fuyu has once again thrown herself between Kaji and an akuma. No wonder Kaji’s freely jumping around the battlefield with zero supervision.

“Hey, Ladybug. Could you please make sure this idiot stays out of trouble for me? Thanks,” Fuyu snarked from inside the picture.

The akuma has stopped shooting at us and started shouting profanities at us. If she wasn’t an akuma and completely unaccountable for her actions, I would’ve given her a one way ticket to detention.

“Where’s Chat Noire?” I asked, focusing back into the original topic.

“Her picture’s safe with Blake. I already told him to run,” Kaji said.

“Something you should also be doing,” Fuyu grumbled from the picture, her cold glare aimed at Kaji.

“Hey, Blake wouldn’t even have the chance to run if I hadn’t distracted the akuma. Besides, her beams aren’t that dangerous, as you can surely attest,” Kaji sneered at the picture still in my hand.

“Stupid! I only got hit trying to save your sorry butt! You just had to taunt the raging akuma, did you?”

“You know, you don’t have to follow me around akumas…”

“Great,” I exasperatedly said as I handed over Fuyu’s picture back to Kaji and let them continue their worry-fuelled bickering.

I ignored my two best friend’s usual bickering and focused on looking for Blake.

Looking back down, I saw the akuma has given up on us and went back to scouring the park, looking for Blake. From here, I could see the red haired teen model. He’s hiding close to the exit, but he’s not making a move to leave. At least he’s not dancing around the akuma’s photo beams like some people.

“By the way, the akuma’s in her ‘Blake Crawford Fan Club’ membership card pinned on her chest. Chat Noire managed to put a dent on the camera and no akuma flew out. It’s the only other thing on her that stands out,” Kaji said, breaking off his argument with the pictured pinkette.

“Thank you,” I mean it. While seeing my friend so close to akuma makes me feel like I’m losing a few years of my life every single time, I can’t deny that he’s actually helpful. It’s nice to know he has my back on both sides of the mask. I just wish he could find a way to help without charging right into the akuma’s line of fire.

Speaking of the akuma, she still hasn’t found Blake, but she’s cleared off more things in the park. Blake is running out of places to hide, and she’s getting closer to where he’s hiding. Why isn’t he running?! The exit is practically right next to him!

I spin my yoyo, preparing to ambush the unwitting akuma. Before I jump down on the akuma, I spared one last warning glare towards Kaji. “Before I forget…“

“Kaji, no,” Fuyu pre-emptively warned from Kaji’s pocket.

Kaji’s smile broadened. “Do you need my help?”

“Stay here. Don’t you dare try to get down without help,” I firmly said before swinging down on the akuma.

“HEY POPPYRAZZI!!! STOP TRAPPING PEOPLE INTO PICTURES!!!”

And so the fight begins.


	2. A Less Normal Girl With A Similar Secret

“You can’t hide from me forever Blake Crawford! You are MINE!!!” the akuma declared, her camera shooting a beam of pixelated light at a table she assumed Blake to be hiding in. The table vanished in a flash. Another deranged fan turned akuma from the looks of it. Why does Blake always get the trickier akumas after him?

I narrowed my emerald green eyes. I scanned the area from my perch up a bakery building, looking for her target. It wasn’t that hard. His crimson hair stands out among the greens and whites.

Blake is hiding behind a statue a few meters right of the akuma, keeping track of her movements in case she turns her back on him and get a chance to run away.

“Come out, come out wherever you are…~” the akuma sang, taking a shot of the tent- one less place to hide for the wanted model.

Blake carefully backed away from the statue and tried to jump behind a tree so he has more places to hide in. As if he had my alleged bad luck, he stepped on a twig that snapped loud enough to catch the akuma’s attention.

She aimed her camera at the grove of trees, making them disappear and exposing Blake.

The akuma grinned like she just won the lottery. “There you are!”

Welp. Ready or not, it’s time to make my heroic entrance!

“I got you now my beautifully tragic bad bo-“

I threw my baton at her arm, making her shoot a tree instead of the model and cut her villain rant short.

“Who dares get in between me and my true love?!”

I jumped off the building and right into the park. I did a barrel roll in the air and finished with a three point hero landing, claws out ready to scratch.

_**I am one of the heroes of Helios City.**_

I bit back a hiss when I felt a jolt of pain from my knee. Okay Ladybug, you won that one. If it wasn’t for my suit, I’d have a broken leg by now. But that doesn’t make ‘Superhero Landings’ any less awesome.

I stood defiantly at the akuma with my usual smirk and casually caught my baton as it magically flew back towards me. It wouldn’t do to let the pain ruin my heroic entrance.  
“You know, there are better ways to get a guy’s attention.~”

I flipped my wild fiery red mane to demonstrate my point, my other hand on my waist, and my feral emerald green eyes narrowed with mirth. Wearing a full body leather cat suit, matching leather cat ears, belt tail, and a bell around my neck… I sure rock the heroic Catwoman look.

The akuma -a gaudy looking girl with magenta hair, dressed in a black jumpsuit with teal elbow length gloves and knee length boots that end with a pixelated trim, and a chunky teal polaroid camera- turned to me with a glare. Blake took this opportunity to run. I blocked the akuma’s path with a swing of my staff just as she was about to go after Blake.

“And you really should know when a guy is just plain uninterested.”

I tried for a more playful tone, but I just barely managed to keep the venom out of my voice. The akuma better pray that Ladybug gets here soon, because I’m not sure how long I can hold back.

0-0-0-0-0

The fight dragged on and we kept moving from one place to another, the akuma, Poppyrazzi, was ranting about her goals the whole time- something about getting all the date spots into her picture perfect world or whatever. The closer I get to her, the harder it gets to dodge her beams. And when I managed to get through her guard, I was aiming to hit her in the chest to wind her so I can snatch her camera but she surprisingly blocked my staff with her camera.

My breath hitched when my staff left a dent on the camera. The good news was no akuma went out. I don’t know what happens if an akuma flutters away unpurified, but I’m taking Plagg’s word for it that it won’t be pretty. The bad news was it wasn’t damaged enough to stop working as one click later, I’m disarmed.

Poppyrazzi’s lips turned up in a satisfied evil grin.

“Give up, Chat Noire! Surrender your Miraculous and I will release everyone I trapped!”

“Hmm…” I pretended to think about it while checking my ring, my Miraculous, like I would check my nails. Trapped, eh? If everything Poppyrazzi zapped has to go somewhere, I bet my Cataclysm could break them out. But I’d rather keep that as a last resort in case either Ladybug needs my Cataclysm for whatever plan he comes up with or I find a way to trap her. Whichever one comes first.

From the corner of my eye, I can vaguely make out that familiar checkered orange shirt followed by a flash of pink hair hovering by the treeline. So Monsieur Ladyblogger and his self-proclaimed bodyguard are here. Better keep the akuma’s attention on me.

“No deal,” I said with a Cheshire cat grin.

Poppyrazzi’s face contorted with fury. She pointed an accusing finger at me.

“You’re clearly outmatched! I’ll just catch you and bring you to Hawkmoth. Then I’ll be able to keep my powers and keep Blake for myself FOREVER!” Poppyrazzi, let out a maniacal laugh.

Typical Hawkmoth. Always picking the melodramatic ones to work for her.

I dodged another photo beam with my cat-like reflexes. This doesn’t look good. I’m disarmed, I can’t use cataclysm to create a crater big enough to trap her in since I’m keeping an eye out for three teenagers, holding back my urge to claw this akuma’s face off is frustrating, getting near her is impossible with her camera so snatching it is out of the question, and even if I did know where the possessed item is, I can’t smash it now without Ladybug. I am truly living up to being the unlucky black cat today. Ladybug, where the heck are you?!

As if things couldn’t get worse, Blake tripped out of his hiding place. Blake, what gives? You’re not usually this clumsy!

The akuma saw him too and fired her photo beam at him. 

Compared to some other akumas, this one’s among the less lethal ones. Blake will just be trapped somewhere for a few hours at worst. Once Ladybug finally gets his butt here and purify the akuma, he’ll set things back to normal with Miraculous Ladybug.

The logical choice would’ve been to just let the akuma shoot Blake and keep her within the park until Ladybug gets here. If it were anyone else, that’s exactly what I would’ve done.

But it’s Blake.

“Oh no, you don’t!” I pushed Blake out of the way and got shot as a result.

0-0-0-0-0

“Sorry you got hit, Chat Noire,” Blake apologized from what looks like a screen in an empty white sky. He keeps a good poker face, but judging from how his shoulders are hunched, his skin a shade lighter than its natural sun kissed tone, and the slightest frown on his face, he is far from feeling zen right now.

As it turns out, her beams trap people into Polaroid pictures. It’s a good thing Blake had some presence of mind to grab my photo and made a run for it. He found a relatively safe spot to hide in the park while the Ladyblogger and his lady-friend are distracting the akuma.

“It’s okay, it’s part of the job description,” I reassured as best as I can while exploring my sterile white surroundings. I’ve been walking for a while now but there doesn’t seem to be an end to this. No walls, no ceilings, just a white floor and endless nothingness. Not another soul in sight. It’s kinda like solitary confinement, minus the confining walls. “Why don’t you get out of the park? Find someplace safer.”

“Can’t…” he curtly said without facing me, emerald green eyes anxiously scanning the park, running his hand through his crimson hair and messing up the sweptback style the hairstylist painstakingly worked on, “…Not until I find-”

A loud crash from behind Blake cuts him off.

“HEY POPPYRAZZI!!! STOP TRAPPING PEOPLE INTO PICTURES!!!”

Great. My partner’s finally here.

“I better get out of here,” I scratched the back of my wild fiery red mane in frustration. Looks like I’ve got no choice. “Cataclysm!”

Power surged up my claws and I pushed it down the white floor. A huge black crack formed, and next thing I knew, I’m back in the real world.

I scanned my surroundings to reorient myself. The photo shoot set is back. There’s definitely a lot more people running around the park than there was a few minutes ago. It seems my cataclysm didn’t just free myself, but freed everyone and everything the akuma shot. Even my baton made it back!

Just a little further in the park, I can see Ladybug fighting off Poppyrazzi. He’s having trouble getting near her with her barrage of photo beams. Poppyrazzi had him stuck playing defence so badly, he couldn’t get an attack in without risking getting stuck in a photo.

“Gotta go! Ladybug needs me. Stay safe, Blakey!”

I pulled out my baton and extended it to a quarter staff as I charged towards the battle. I struck low and tripped Poppyrazzi from behind.

“You!” Poppyrazzi glared at me, scrabbling back to her feet.

“The one and only~,” I smirked smugly, not taking my eyes off her camera.

“Chat Noire!” Ladybug sounded relieved to see me.

“Let’s finish this off, Ladybug,” I said, reminding him that the fight’s not over yet.

He promptly shifted his intense focus back to the akuma and summoned Lucky Charm. I can practically imagine him scrunching his nose in concentration as he took a few seconds to figure out what to do with whatever random object Lucky Charm gave him.

“Hey Chat Noire, remember that one episode from Tom and Jerry?”

Stealing a glance back at Ladybug, I saw him wrapping his hand with a string from a ladybug patterned ball of yarn.

“I think I can imagine which scene you’re talking about. Wanna re-enact it?”

We dashed around the photo shoot set, Ladybug wrapping the yarn around every piece of equipment he can jump over. When he pulled the string taut, and the akuma tripped over it.

She fell with the entire photo shoot set following down after her in every direction. Predictably, she shot at the biggest, most sight-obscuring object first, and that was the tent. She’s in for a nasty surprise.

Because of the tent, she didn’t see my baton shooting towards her. She couldn’t click her camera in time before my baton shattered her camera lens.

Ladybug quickly went over Poppyrazzi, snatched the card and ripped it in two. Without missing a beat, Ladybug caught the akuma and casted Miraculous Ladybug.

Once the magical swarm of ladybugs are done fixing the city, I sauntered over to Ladybug. He was doing his ‘pep talk for the akuma of the day’ thing again since the people getting paid to do it aren’t here yet.

“So no more stalking Blake. It’s an invasion of his privacy. Understood?” he said at the end of his scolding. Seeing the girl flinch at his tone, his features softened. “But don’t worry, you’ll find a guy who’ll like you back someday. Just don’t force yourself onto guys who are not interested from now on.”

He is completely oblivious to the girl’s glazed eyes dreamily checking him out, probably only selectively listening the moment he went soft. I roll my eyes. Typical fan girls. Just when I was about to congratulate him on a job well done, someone else beat me to him.

“Ladybug… Have you seen my sister? She was just here…” Blake said, his eyes shifting around in a fruitless search.

Ladybug shifted uneasily while the fan girl, learning her lesson from being akumatized, moved away to give them space. That was when our Miraculous simultaneously let out a warning beep.

“Don’t worry Blake, you’ll find her soon. Miraculous Ladybug already fixed everything. She should be safe,” Ladybug said, as evasively as ever when it came to a certain female model. Sigh…

I quickly perked myself up before I made my way over to Ladybug, pulling him away from the growing crowd where Monsieur Ladyblogger and his pink haired companion are at the front. Ladybug’s cheeks were growing flustered, probably from the arriving press. He never got used to the attention.

“We better get going,” I cheerfully announced, flashing a smile at the cameras.

“R-right. Please excuse us!” Ladybug said to the crowd with an uneasy smile.

We did our traditional fist bumps before running off. I found a back alley near that same bakery with the cheese sale. It’s the reason I wasn’t at the park with Blake when the akuma got there.

My Miraculous beeped one last time before the magic detransformed me. My fiery red mane smoothed down to a silkier deep crimson fox tail. My feral eyes turned back into a normal human set of emerald green eyes. My leather cat suit changes back into a billowy black blouse, thin white jacket, dark moss green shorts, thigh high black socks, and knee high boots.

“And where’s my camembert?” Plagg, my kwami, demanded as soon as he zoomed out of my ring.

“You caused me a lot of trouble today,” I lightly chided. It’s more of a rant than a scolding really.

“The cheese fondue was calling me. I can’t just leave them alone,” Plagg whined.

“And why can’t I just give you that instead of your smelly camembert?”

“The cheese fondue was great, don’t get me wrong. But nothing beats camembert!”

I rolled my eyes knowing I can’t win this argument. I tossed him a small slice of his stinky camembert, which he quickly inhaled. Eww. At least that’s one less slice of stinky cheese in my purse.

“Now get back in here. I’ve been gone long enough because of you,” I said as I ushered the kwami into my purse.

_**My name is Blair Crawford: Full-time student, part-time teen fashion model. I wouldn’t call my life normal, especially now that I’m also a superhero on the side.**_

As I snuck back into the park, I saw my brother still running around looking for me. Better make my appearance before he grows bald from worry. I grinned when an idea popped into my head.

Right when I was about to surprise him from behind, my phone rang. He turned around with his phone out and an unimpressed look on his face at my foiled prank. He’s no fun anymore.

“Sis, where were you?” try as he might, Blake couldn’t hide the slight tremble in his voice. At least, not from me. It’s a twin thing.

_**This is a secret I can’t tell anyone. Not even my only family.**_

“Chill bro, I was at the bakery. And even if I was caught, I’d just be trapped in a picture. No big deal,” I flung my arm around his shoulder –having to stand on the tips of my toes just to reach it, stupid height difference- hoping the casualness would help calm him down. “How about you? The akuma went after you this time. What’s our tally? Three to two? Congratulations bro! You’re in the lead!”

“That’s not something to be proud of,” he warned while failing to hide a small smile. “Let’s get back to the Liungs’. They’d be worried if we don’t show up soon.”

And so another day ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the two-part introduction where the two protagonists get a chapter each. Sorry if the format is a little confusing with the slight time leap back to a few minutes before Ladybug arrived when the last chapter cuts off when Ladybug was in the middle of a fight. I could've streamlined this into one long chapter but I felt that breaking it into two helps juxtapose the two leads better. I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think in the comments section.


	3. LadyBlair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first part of what I'd like to call the Love Square arch. Each chapter would explain one side of THIS love square dynamic, so four chapters plus one from an outsider's POV. Enjoy!

**Blair**

“Come on Blair! Stop resisting my manly charms and date me already!” the akuma yelled while chasing me.

The akuma is a huge hulking giant wearing the tackiest gold chain necklace I’ve ever seen. He’s wearing a pair of pants and steel toed boots and nothing on top to cover his disgusting chest hair and oversized muscles. He’s one of the plainer akuma (akumas?) I’ve ever had to deal with.

This is the third time an akuma went after me and I’m unlucky enough to be in the middle of a photo shoot at the city founder’s statue at City Square with no places to hide. I’ve been running for around twenty minutes now in heels! Fashionable torture devices. My feet are definitely going to feel this tomorrow… Oh wait, Miraculous Ladybug can fix this. Such a wonderfully useful power.

“STOP HARASSING A MINOR!!!” Ladybug yelled from the top of an apartment building. Finally!

He swooped in, grabbed me by the waist, and swung me away to safety.

“How dare you steal my date! Hang in there dollface, for I, Stud Muffin, will get you!”

I rolled my eyes.

The akuma calls himself _Stud Muffin_. Really Hawkmoth?

He thinks of himself as the epitome of manliness in Helios and that no woman can resist his charms. Then he saw me taking a quick break by the café and tried to get me on a date. Ew. No. That guy’s like, ten years older than me and definitely not my type. Worst of all…

_“If you reject me, I might turn into an akuma out of sheer disappointment.”_

_I glared back at him, on behalf of anyone who’s ever been akumatized. Seeing him flinch gave me a bit of satisfaction, but it’s not enough to lessen my anger._

_“I’ll take my chances.”_

So I promptly rejected him. Predictably, he got akumatized. What I didn’t predict was that he got akumatized only five minutes later. Wow. Hawkmoth sure didn’t waste time there. It’s like she has nothing else to look forward to on her Sundays. I still regret nothing.

The akuma’s still chasing us. He’s fairly fast, so Ladybug can’t just drop me off and risk letting me get captured.

“You scrawny fiend! You think you can just come here and sweep her off her feet?! I was here first! Be a real man and fight me!”

Oh come on! I get shipped enough with him as Chat Noire! Don’t start the _LadyBlair_ bandwagon!

Ladybug had a deadpan look on his face. I’m glad to see he shares my sentiments.

“Just WHAT did you do this time?” Ladybug asked with that accusing tone reserved specially for me.

“ _Nothing._ ”

Ladybug shot me a deadpan look.

The akuma made a wild grab for us, nearly grabbing my leg had Ladybug not swung his body up higher to keep away from the akuma’s reach. “You don’t have to be shy, Blair! Jump into my arms and stop rejecting me!”

“Nothing I regret anyway,” I amended my former statement.

“Is it really too much to ask for you to learn to reject people GENTLY?”

“Is it really too much to ask for guys to take my rejection AT ALL?” I mockingly echoed.

“Resist urge to throw her at akuma... Resist urge to throw her at akuma…” Ladybug muttered like a mantra under his breath, as if I couldn’t hear him from where I am right now. I chose to be the bigger person and ignore it.

“Could you just put me down and fight him? I’m sure I’ll be safe if you leave me on a roof.”

As if the akuma is actively trying to foil my plans, he threw a car at us. Ladybug dodged and the car crashed on top of a hopefully empty building. I repeat; Miraculous Ladybug is such a wonderfully useful power.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, citizen,” he scolded, his lips set in a firm line accepting no further arguments.

I frowned. Ladybug readjusted his hold on me and swung his yoyo again to make a sharp turn. I clung to him tighter, feeling very vulnerable without my magical cat suit. I hate playing the damsel in distress. I should be fighting by his side, not be protected by him!

“I can’t leave you and risk your safety. Not until Chat Noire gets here and gets the akuma off of us.”

How in the world is Chat Noire supposed to distract the akuma if you won’t leave her alone to transform?!

Ladybug, while I think it’s sweet of you to be concerned about my safety, I’m no damsel in distress! The citizens need you more than I do!

0-0-0-0-0

**Ladybug**

Chat Noire is taking an awfully long time to get here.

The akuma this time is targeting my classmate. This is the third time this has happened.

Her name is Blair Crawford; one of Helios’ most in demand teen models, the girl of most hormonal teenaged boys’ dreams, and one of the two new transfer students in our class. She is seated right in front of me on the first row, second column from the right.

She has waist-length deep red hair, and bright emerald green eyes. She has flawless tanned skin and a… rather… uh… curvy figure… which are further emphasized with her billowy blouses, shorts and thigh highs. Okay, I’ll admit, she’s very attractive and I tend to look at her a lot, which is very difficult not to do when she’s sitting right in front of me in class. But that doesn’t stop me from finding her suspicious!

From what I’ve heard from her equally photogenic twin and reputed bad boy Blake, they transferred to our school because of their sponsor deal or something like that. They live with their foster mother, Erin Liung, who also happens to be their manager, and her son, Vincent Liung, after the twins’ parents died years ago. Beyond that, there aren’t much relevant details I can find in the magazines. I did not need to know how many guys she used to date or her three sizes, thank you very much.

Unlike most people who have been targeted by an akuma, Blair doesn’t even seem fazed.

The first time, she did a very sarcastic parody of a damsel in distress, before throwing her lunch at the akuma and running away.

The second time, she was much less merciful. She kicked the poor akuma in every man’s weakness and grumpily walked away.

Since the akuma this time is ridiculously strong, she can’t just do either. She’s helpless. And yet she’s rolling her eyes as if the akuma is just another unworthy suitor she can step on. I find that suspicious.

I am tempted to just leave her be and let her test her luck with the akuma. If my suspicions are correct, then that shouldn’t be a problem for her.

But I can’t do that. What if I’m wrong about her?

“OWWWCH!!!” Stud Muffin –ugh, Hawkmoth, why??- screamed in pain.

“Chat Noire?” I looked back, hoping to see a glimpse of my partner. But the black cat was nowhere in sight.

The akuma stopped running and had his hands on his face. What just happened?

“This is your chance, Ladybug! Go get him!” Blair urged.

Huh? Wait, why is she barefoot?

I looked back at where the akuma is still wailing and spotted a pair of very expensive looking heels scattered on the sidewalk.

Did she just throw her heels at the akuma?!

I put her down on the nearest roof and ordered her to stay hidden until it’s safe.

With or without Chat Noire, I’m a hero. And I can’t fail to do my job just because she isn’t here. I don’t want to let her and everyone else down.

0-0-0-0-0

**Blair**

Ladybug quickly dropped me off a nearby building’s roof before swinging back to the akuma.

Finally! He left me alone!

“You know, the fight’s practically over. Why bother?” said Plagg.

I frowned. “He needs us. Besides, I don’t think a little heel to the eye is going to keep the akuma distracted for long.”

A few meters away, Stud Muffin’s already recovered and is trying to crush Ladybug. The ringing of sirens and the ever familiar sound of property damage were dead giveaways.

“Plagg! Claws out!”

Plagg grumbled something about overeager chosens as he got sucked into my ring and transformed me.

0-0-0-0-0

After taking care of Stud Muffin and fixing the city, we congratulated each other with a fist bump until Ladybug suddenly seemed to remember something.

He walked past me and picked up a pair of heels.

 _My_ heels.

“Oh right, I left the civilian at that rooftop! I have to get her down from there. Better return these while I’m at it,” before I can tell him an excuse to ‘leave Blair alone’, he had his yoyo out. “Please, take care of the akuma victim for me! Thaaaanks!” he said as he swung away.

“ARGH! STUPID! CARING! SAFETY OBSESSED! BUG!” I yelled to no one in particular before going after Ladybug to beat him to where Blair is supposed to be, completely ignoring the pedo and left him to the care of the EMT guys.

0-0-0-0-0

When I got there, Ladybug was already worriedly swinging around the building frantically searching for me. When he was at the other side, I jumped in through the fire exit and de-transformed. I made my way back to the rooftop and waved over Ladybug.

“Where were you?!” he reprimanded as soon as he landed.

“I was hiding, just like you said,” I coolly replied, already used to having the superhero scolding me.

“Oh. Okay. Uh,” he awkwardly fuddled about before regaining his composure and coldly handed over my heels. “And these are yours.”

“Thanks,” I grabbed his upper arm for balance as I hastily slipped them back on.

Ladybug flinched on contact but kept quiet and made no move other than folding his arms close to his chest. Then I heard his Miraculous beep as a reminder of his impending transformation.

“Are you gonna bring me down now or should I just take the stairs?”

0-0-0-0-0

Being the gentleman that he is, he even swung me to the nearest bus stop before running off to hide his identity.

When I was finally alone, I dropped the polite model smile.

“Still upset that Ladybug’s giving you the cold shoulder?” Plagg teased from my purse.

I rolled my eyes and pushed his head back in before anyone can see. We may be alone for now, but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful in public places such as these.

“He’ll come around,” I said, more for myself than for Plagg to hear.

“Why do you care so much about his opinions on you anyway? Don’t you hate being shipped with him?” Plagg asked, tearing open the camembert’s wrapper.

“I may not like him that way, but he’s still my partner. I want us to be the best heroes we could be, and our relationship should not get in the way of that.”

My phone rang.

Seeing it as a signal to stop talking, Plagg popped his head back into my purse to gobble up what’s left of today’s camembert.

I fished my phone out of my pocket and checked the caller ID. It was a call from my manager-slash-legal guardian, Mrs Liung.

“Hel-”

 _“{Oh thank God you finally picked up! Are you alright?}”_ Mrs Liung said in a sharp tone that demands answers.

“I’m fine. Just a little tired, but fine,” I looked down at my feet. The blisters I got from running are gone now. “And even if I wasn’t, Miraculous Ladybug heals everything.”

 _“{Don’t say things like that,}”_ now she’s in ‘Dragon Lady’ mode. It’s that mode that allows her to get contracts under her terms and forces others to agree to anything she says. I both admire and fear that about her. _“{That won’t stop us from worrying-}”_

She turned her phone away from her to focus on whoever is with her. There were mutters on her end. I could still pick out most of her words.

_“{Yes, son, she said she’s okay. Huh? You want to- If you insist.}”_

There was some slight shuffling on the other end, before Mrs Liung was replaced with Vincent.

_“{Little sister!}”_

I cringed at his term of endearment for me, but I didn’t correct him. It’ll only lead to a crying session… Rather, an even bigger crying session than he’s already having right now.

_“{I was so worried about you! Why didn’t you get into the car when I told you to?!}”_

‘Because you’ll make it impossible for me to find a nice little hiding place to transform into Chat Noire’ is what I wanted to say. “Because he’ll go after you too,” is what I said instead.

It's not a lie. He’s the son of the woman who took me and my brother in when we had nowhere to go. We owe them big time, and I’d rather they stay safe during akuma attacks.

_“{Blair, I’m touched and all, but I’d rather you not put yourself in danger for me, especially when it’s not necessary. We could’ve both been safe if you just went in the car.}”_

I didn’t reply to that. It’s getting harder and harder to make excuses around the Liungs. They even bought a car after the Poppyrazzi incident so my twin and I can have an escape vehicle... Not that I plan to ever make use of it.

_“{Can you tell me where you are? I’ll give you a ride home. We can even stop by that ice cream shop on the way.}”_

It’s not even a question of whether or not I want a ride. But that wouldn’t stop me from treating it like one.

“No need. I can get back on my own. Thanks anyway.”

I hung up before the Liungs could insist. As touching as their concern is, they have a tendency to overdo things and be annoyingly pushy about it. It’s best to decline as early as possible before Mrs Liung’s Dragon Lady mode makes me cave in.

My phone rang again. I growled at their persistence.

“I said I’m FINE!”

_“{… Liungs got to you first?}”_

Hearing my twin on the phone rather than the Liungs, I instantly calmed down.

“Yep.”

Blake let out an exasperated sigh.

Once again, he’s trying to hide how worried he really is, but now he’s got more incentive thanks to my already annoyed mood.

 _“{I know they can be overbearing, but they mean well,}”_ Blake said, knowing me well enough to know what I was thinking.

“I know. It’s just that… We’re already imposing on them when they let us live with them, and I don’t want to-“

 _“{-owe them any more than we already do?}”_ Blake finished my sentence.

A smile made its way to my face. It’s nice to know someone understands.

“Yep.”

I can imagine him shaking his head thinking ‘What are we gonna do about the overbearing Liungs?’.

“… So, today, we’re at a draw,” I said, changing the topic to something a lot less serious. “Wanna bet on which one of us will get chased by an akuma next?”

_“{Blair, don’t jinx us.}”_

I snickered to myself. If only he knew…

“It can’t be helped bro.”

A bus stopped by, cutting our conversation short.

“I better go, talk to you later.”

With a click, the call ended and I hopped onto the bus. I took the nearest window seat and watched the city as the bus drove by. With no one else calling me, I finally got a good look at my phone. My eyes bulged when I saw the notifications.

37 Missed Calls.

24 Messages.

All within the span of around thirty minutes.

All from the same three culprits.

The akuma today really made them worry, huh? I made a mental note to stop by the convenience store and get them something for desert. They need the comfort food more than I do.

0-0-0-0-0

**Ladybug**

I detransformed behind a doughnut shop next to city square. Tikki quickly hid in my bag and we started to make our way back home.

“This was the third time Blair has been targeted,” I worriedly told Tikki while taking out my phone.

“Yes it is,” Tikki said, just loud enough for only me to hear. “But don’t you think you’re jumping to conclusions about this?”

“Tikki, have you seen the way she acts whenever there’s an akuma? Usually, the minute one comes up, she’s nowhere to be found. During the times when her brother was targeted, she didn’t show up even though, according to Kaji, she’s supposed to be the ‘overprotective twin’. And whenever she’s targeted, she acts like she’s in control,” I told Tikki my sound reasoning for my theory as I updated my chart on the latest akuma attack.

_Stud Muffin_  
_Real Name: xxxxx xxxxxxxx_  
_Duration: Approx. 35 minutes_  
_Date: January xx, xxxx, Sunday_  
_Akuma Item: Golden chain necklace_  
_Goal: To get Blair Crawford to go on a date with him_

“Maybe she’s just smart enough to avoid akuma attacks when she can. Maybe she just trusts that you and Chat Noire can handle the situation so she doesn’t panic when an akuma goes after her. Besides, didn’t she help with distracting the akuma a few minutes ago?” Tikki reasoned.

“It could be a ploy to get me to lower my guard around her. I find it unnerving that she seems too confident in the face of danger. Like she’s not worried about her safety at all,” I argued.

Tikki gave up arguing with me and went back to munching on her stash of cookies in my bag. But I know she’ll be right back at it sooner or later. I continued typing away on my phone. While I find it a bit trickier to type the intel and align the lines just right on my phone than on my desktop, it’s always handy to have my chart on hand.

_Location Notes:_  
_Announced his presence at xxx, 3:28pm._  
_Defeated and purified at xxxx, 4:04pm._

I labelled the areas on my chart’s map and traced the lines between the two areas.

Then I marked a third area.

_Blair Crawford had a photo shoot at the City Square, 1pm-3:30pm._

It was right next to where the akuma appeared.

“This couldn’t be a coincidence,” I muttered to myself.

“I still think you’re jumping to conclusions, Shizuke. Why don’t you try to get to know her better instead of theorizing things about her behind her back?” Tikki suggested. She never gives up trying to see the good in people, which is why she never stops arguing with me about this.

“But what if I’m right about her?”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“Tikki, I can’t take my chances with this...” I looked around to make sure no one was listening in on me, before I continued in a more hushed tone. “She might be _Hawkmoth._ ”

For some reason, Tikki went back to her cookies and furiously stuffed her face with them like an angry chipmunk.


	4. ShizuBlair

**Shizuke**

“Keagan Gerald Aurelio-Ashworth,” called our homeroom teacher, Mr. Ross.

“Sir, yes sir!” Kaji said with a cheerful salute from the leftmost side of the front row.

Our orange haired teacher fondly rolled his eyes Kaji’s antics and indulged his student by saluting him back before he continued checking attendance.

“Blair Crawford.”

“Here,” said the red haired girl seated right in front of me.

“Blake Crawford,” the teacher continued listing off names, but I was no longer paying attention.

I trained my eyes on her, watching her every move. She’s taking out a piece of paper, and a pen. She asks Kaji, who she shares a desk with, if she can borrow his book which he happily lent her. She pushes a strand of her dark red hair back behind her ear. She takes a few notes from the book. She hums to herself as she procrastinated on today’s homework. So I guess I can cross out ‘using her looks to charm nerds into doing her homework for her’ off her list of evil deeds.

At first glance, she seems like a normal albeit famous and ridiculously attractive girl. But I know better. She knows more than she’s letting on.

The way she acted with the akuma just yesterday was suspicious. To her, it just seemed like a minor inconvenience when the akuma went after her. Like she had everything under control and that I was being a nuisance for saving her.

That just reignited my suspicions. It’s done nothing but build up since the day she first came to school.

I warned my friends, partially because she could be a dangerous mastermind and I want my friends to be prepared, partially because Fuyu found my magazine clippings of Blair – which I am keeping PURELY for INVESTIGATIVE PURPOSES – and I wanted to clear out any misunderstandings.

“Fiona Kuznetsov,” Mr. Ross called, bringing me out of my thoughts just before I was called.

Fuyu quietly raised her hand next to me.

“Shizuke Midorikawa.”

“Present,” I nodded at the teacher before looking back at the girl I was staring at.

The girl must’ve sensed that I was staring so intently at her earlier for she turned around at me with the most innocently clueless look in the world… before it shifted into a mischievous grin and winked at me.

I shuddered and looked away, folding my arms over my chest to keep the Miraculous away from her prying eyes. I find it disturbing that my ‘maybe-mortal-enemy’ seems to be interested in me. This has been going on for two weeks. Does she know? I hope not. 

As tempting as it is to confront her, I have to follow the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ rule and do nothing for now. Especially since Tikki is warning me on the chance that I am wrong. If it turns out that she isn’t Hawkmoth, then it’s a good thing I listened to Tikki.

That still begs the question though…

Why is she after me?

0-0-0-0-0

**Blair**

Okay, this classmate of mine is so amusing. And I’ve made it my life goal to get closer to him.

His name is Shizuke Midorikawa. He’s the loud nerd with thick glasses, and weird bluish black hair sitting right behind me. He’s also the school’s self-appointed hall monitor, and totally looks the part with his neatly ironed button up shirt and sweater vest combo he likes to wear. He’s actually fairly handsome if you don’t mind his nerdy get up.

When we first met, well, he kinda hates me. I already apologized to him and his friends for our tactless first meeting after Blake told me off about it. Keagan and I are on much better terms, no hard feelings. But Shizuke and Fiona are still a little stingy about it. Especially Shizuke. Geez. It’s been four months already! Lighten up!

He’s staring at me again. Unlike most boys, it’s not because I’m eye candy. Get this- He thinks I’M Hawkmoth! I crack up whenever I think about the irony! Okay, I’m only laughing about it NOW after I got over the absurdity of it. But that’s not why I’m after him.

So, how do I know he thinks I’m Hawkmoth? Why am I even trying to befriend him?

0-0-0-0-0

It happened two weeks ago after a lunch time attack from an akuma when I heard his crazy theory.

Ladybug was being more gung-ho than usual so we finished up the akuma in record time, and I am very grateful that I didn’t have to skip lunch after all. I decided to eat a quick lunch at that bakery across the street from the akuma attack. That’s when I spotted Shizuke with his usual band of friends.

This was odd coming from ‘Mr. Perfect Attendance’. The bakery was a few blocks away from school. Surely Shizuke wouldn’t go all the way out here to risk being late for class over a croissant. Which is why I did the only logical thing anyone would do: Spy on them.

I took a seat in a dark corner two tables away from them, my back turned on them. From what I can tell, Shizuke is seated facing away from me with Keagan and Fiona taking the two seats across from him. I plugged my earphones into my ears so I can pretend to be listening to music and not eavesdropping on them. I can still hear them clearly thanks to my enhanced hearing.

“So you think Blair could be Hawkmoth?” Keagan asked incredulously.

Whuuut.

“It’s just a theory, but I think it’s plausible. Think about it. Blair was absent on the first day…” he faltered a little at the mention of that horrible day. Those three are still shaken up about that. “Then in the evening, Hawkmoth made her appearance. And the morning after, Blair finally made it to school. Then in the afternoon, just a few minutes before the heroes made their announcement at City Square, I heard Blair say _‘I’ve got a speech to crash’_. Guess what happened next? Hawkmoth crashed the heroes’ speech! If Hawkmoth had to be someone in our class, I think it would be Blair.”

“That does make sense,” Fiona agreed.

Whut whut.

Okay, I’ll admit that that was a freaky coincidence. Technically, Chat Noire crashed the speech too but everyone just assumed she was in on it from the start. Ladybug just planned the speech without me, and I decided to join him at the last minute. It’s not my fault Hawkmoth had the same idea.

But more importantly, is the Miraculous’ glamour THAT strong for them not to notice anything off about that theory?! I mean, I get that it must be strong in my case since my civilian face is plastered all over the city. I even grilled Plagg about it. While the glamour does filter people’s perceptions about a Miraculous wielder’s secret identity, it does nothing to hide the wielder’s transformed appearance. Shizuke. Fiona. Open your eyes. I look NOTHING like a middle aged woman!

“Shizu, the whole ‘I’ve got a speech to crash’ thing could just be one big coincidence. She could’ve just decided at the last minute to watch Ladybug’s announcement and has been somewhere in City Square, completely ignored in the crowd because everyone else was too busy looking at the heroes and the swarm of creepy butterflies Hawkmoth sent. And do you need to get your glasses checked? I saw _Hawkmoth_ with my own eyes!” Keagan growled the villainess’s name. “I’m pretty sure she’s too old to be Blair. Her ‘Office-Lady-From-Hell’ aesthetic doesn’t fit Blair’s style either.”

Finally! Someone who gets it! Hawkmoth shouldn’t be compared to me at all!

“But what if the Miraculous changed her appearance for anonymity? What if it’s the glamour playing tricks with our eyes?” Shizuke defended.

Blair, stay strong. Don’t smash your beautiful face into the table. You still need your face for work.

“Hmm… Maybe I should add that to the things I should ask the heroic duo the next time I interview them,” Keagan’s voice drifted off and I can hear him typing on his phone.

Shizuke, for a few seconds, seemed to have given up arguing.

“Kaji, I am saying this as a concerned friend. You are way too obsessed with the heroes,” Fiona warned.

Shizuke choked on his drink.

“Jealous?” I can practically imagine Keagan wiggling his eye brows suggestively as he leaned closer to Fiona.

“No,” Fiona shot back. “I’m just saying that your spandex fetish is getting out of hand.”

“They are kinda hot.”

I heard more choking noises from Shizuke. What a pure cinnamon roll.

“Don’t worry, Shizu. I’m not after either of them. I ship them too and I am not about to break my best bud’s OTP,” Keagan comforted.

Shizuke sighed, sounding honestly relieved.

Ugh… LadyNoire shippers. Why are you everywhere?!

“What else made you suspect Blair?” asked Fiona, dragging them back to their original topic.

Shizuke took this moment to compose himself before continuing his lecture of ‘why Blair is probably Hawkmoth’.

“There’s also the fact that she seems to know a lot about Hawkmoth’s powers before the heroes made their public speech. She knew about Hawkmoth’s ability to create monsters, to… to control free will.”

“Coincidence,” Keagan stated after a brief pause, sounding composed but detached. “Years ago, there was a vigilante who has the ability to temporarily turn people into superheroes. Aunt Vera used to work for the man in charge of investigating the vigilantes spotted around the city at that time. And do you know who Aunt Vera’s boss was? Blair’s father, Inspector Crawford.”

My heart sunk at the name. It’s been years since my parents died…

“I’m sure you can imagine the many ways Blair could’ve learned about the butterfly’s powers without having them herself,” Keagan finished.

“… Okay fine. How about I approach this at a different angle?” Shizuke shifted in his seat. I did my best to take a peek without completely turning my head to them. This should be good.

Keagan and Fiona crowded closer, waiting in anticipation.

“Lately, I observed that more than 50% of the akuma attacks have been happening near our school,” Shizuke pulled out his phone and showed them what I’m guessing is a map full of markings of where akuma attacks have happened. “The yellow dots are where they made their presence known, likely not too far from where their transformation happened. The blue dots are where they were defeated and purified.”

“And the red dots?” asked Keagan.

“Are places where the twins, especially Blair, had their photo shoots.”

What a stalker! And I thought KEAGAN was the stalker of their group.

“Are you sure you don’t just have a huge stalker-ish crush on Blair?” Fiona accused with her cold blue eyes staring holes into Shizuke. “It would explain all those-“

At that, Shizuke sputtered and pushed himself up from his chair by slamming his hands on the table.

“N-N-NO!!! THAT’S NOT WHY I HAVE THEM AND YOU KNOW THAT!!!” he yelled while wildly waving his hands in denial. His voice actually cracked. Noticing that every other customer at the bakery was staring at them, he gestured apologetically and sat back down. In a more hushed voice, he continued, “I just notice that more often than not, wherever they have a photo shoot someone nearby gets akumatized.”

Huh. No wonder I often get to the akuma before Ladybug. I’m pretty sure the people who got akumatized over Blake and I made a significant fraction of Shizuke’s observations. I now blame them for causing Shizuke’s conspiracy theory.

“Not to mention that at least a quarter of the photo shoots that Blair claims to be taking didn’t really happen. I’ve checked her schedule. Her absences doesn’t line up with it. You know what does? Akuma attacks!”

Shizuke’s outburst didn’t get a reaction out of Fiona beyond narrowing her icy blue eyes at him and asking, “Just how do you know the twins’ shooting schedules?”

I leaned a little closer, curious to know just how much of a creeper Shizuke is. Mom always said that looks could be deceiving. Who knows what an inconspicuous nerd like Shizuke could be hiding under his goody-two-shoes façade?

Shizuke crosses his arms defensively and huffed. “I’m not literally stalking them if that’s what you’re implying. I would never sink that low,” he said, sounding indignant. He started waving his arms around as if gesturing could somehow help with explanation. “I simply follow their foster brother on Facebook. He runs a page keeping track of the twins’ work for advertisement.”

Fiona stared at him for a few more seconds before letting out a sigh, “You’re not lying. Good.”

… So he’s not a total creeper. He’s just a Facebook stalker. That’s a relief.

“Back to the subject, notice how close most of the red dots are to the yellow dots? It’s alarmingly frequent,” Shizuke pushes his phone into Keagan and Fiona’s faces.

His two friends took a closer look at the map.

“Shizu, assuming Blair IS Hawkmoth, not that I believe that for a second, why would she send akuma after her and her twin? She’s been directly targeted twice. And just a week ago was the third time Blake was targeted,” Keagan said.

“I think she’s trying to get close to the heroes,” Shizuke said.

”Once is a risky gambit. Twice is retarded when it didn’t work the first time, and a complete waste considering she didn’t even stick around for the heroes to save her that time. If you’d talk to her for ten minutes, you’d know how overprotective she is of her brother. She’d never endanger him of all people! Much less do it thrice.”

Keagan, you are the best. I swear.

“Do these dots have dates and times on them?” interrupted Fiona, who was still examining the map. Keagan and Shizuke seemed to have a silent agreement to not argue about me any further.

Shizuke adjusted his glasses, ready to go back into lecture mode.

“Click on them, and you’ll see the notes I added in every dot. The akuma, date, time, real identity, even the akumatized item. I listed them all based on the info I got from various news feeds, the Akuma Victims Protection Society, and the Ladyblog. I have all the yellow and blue dots connected based on their respective akuma, with the red dots depending on whether or not the twins’ photo shoot is nearby when that happens. Of course, I had the lines hidden right now so the map wouldn’t look too messy but click on a dot and the lines that connect them should show up.”

Okay. This dude just put the CSI to shame. I am officially impressed.

“Shizu, I mean this as a compliment. You are the GOD of stalkers,” Fiona declared.

Keagan is practically drooling at the treasure chest of info Shizuke is presenting him. “Shizuke Midorikawa, you are a mad genius. May I post a copy of this on my blog?”

Shizuke pulls his phone closer to him, suddenly unwilling to show his chart to his friends. “Didn’t your father made it illegal to expose the akuma’s civilian name in public media?”

“Yes. That’s why I’m going to filter it so the civilian names don’t show. I’ll even edit some of the possessed items to make it even vaguer. So?” Keagan holds out his hand to Shizuke, making ‘gimme that’ gestures. “May I?”

As expected from the number one advocate of that law. What a daddy’s boy.

“Sorry, I can’t let you do that. I don’t want Hawkmoth to find out that someone is recording her every move. Or that I’m investigating her secret identity,” he smoothly excused. I rolled my eyes. If you still believe it’s me, then you are way off your mark, Four-Eyes. “Wouldn’t want anyone targeting me and my phone.”

“Good point,” Keagan gloomily relented. “It would’ve been really helpful if the heroes know about this, but your own safety is more important.”

“Look who’s talking. You just cried over missing the akuma earlier,” Fiona fired off, starting their usual banter about Keagan’s dangerous new hobby all over again.

Worry not, Monsieur Ladyblogger. Chat Noire will get her claws on that map.

0-0-0-0-0

And that is how I find myself here in the present, winking at my stalker. I am after some really juicy information, and he’s the only way to get it. It’s for the greater good. Ladybug and Chat Noire will one day send him a proper ‘thank you’ for his efforts in stalking everyone.

A quick glance across the lane to my right, my twin brother is giving me weird looks before shrugging it off.

Behind me, I can hear Shizuke scrambling to get his composure back. As usual, once the lesson starts, he ignores me completely and it’ll take until lunch break before I can start trying to befriend him again.

Okay, I’ll admit, I’m having way too much fun at his reactions to my attempts at befriending him. It’s so amusing how easy it is to get him flustered. Kinda reminds me of Ladybug actually. Hm… Wonder how he’ll react if he finds out I’m actually Chat Noire? I bet it’s gonna be hilarious!

For some reason, I can hear Plagg muttering from inside my bag about oblivious kittens.

0-0-0-0-0

**BONUS SCENE: SHIZUKE’S NOTP, KAJICHAT**

**Shizuke**

“Kaji, I am saying this as a concerned friend. You are way too obsessed with the heroes,” Fuyu warned.

I nearly choked on my drink.

Kaji leaned closer to Fuyu, his eyebrows wiggling in amusement. “Jealous?”

“No. I’m just saying that your spandex fetish is getting out of hand.”

This is an awkward topic I wish my friends will stop periodically picking up. Ever since the miraculous happened, Kaji’s been obsessing over the heroes… And may or may not be harbouring a celebrity crush on me- or worse, _Chat Noire_.

I tried to calm myself down by drinking more of my iced green tea…

“They are kinda hot.”

That sentence sent me into a choking frenzy with my tea nearly going up my nose. But my breathing difficulties could wait. My mind’s going on overdrive with the crisis at hand.

KAJI! PLEASE DON’T DEVELOP A CRUSH ON EITHER OF US! IT WOULDN’T END WELL!

With Ladybug, it will make our friendship awkward! As much as I care about Kaji, I can never see him that way. I just can’t. He’s like a brother to me! And I like to believe he sees me the same way. If he ever finds out I’m Ladybug… I shudder at the thought. I don’t want to ruin our wonderful friendship over this.

With Chat Noire, it’s even worse. He’ll be my love rival, which would definitely put a strain on our friendship. If there’s anyone in this city who could impress Chat Noire, it would be Kaji. I wouldn’t stand a chance! Outside of being Ladybug, I don’t have much going for me.

Kaji on the other hand is Helios’ most eligible bachelor! He’s effortlessly smart and handsome with charisma to match- the Ladyblog’s view count can attest to that. He’s the mayor’s son, mind-bogglingly rich, not to mention he lives in a literal castle overlooking the city. He’s like a modern day prince charming! I can see it now…

_“Oh Chat Noire, you’re so brave, strong, and gorgeous- Truly a diamond among women!” Kaji grabbed Chat Noire’s clawed hand and bowed down to plant a kiss on it, like a prince out of a fairy tale. “Will you do me the honor of being my princess?”_

_Chat Noire swooned, a deep red blush coloring her tan cheeks. “Of course, Monsieur Ladyblogger! There’s no one in this city I’d rather be with than you.~”_

_Kaji squealed in excitement when Chat Noire picked him up in a princess carry._

_“Now where should we go on our first date, my prince?~”_

_“Anywhere you dream, my princess,” Kaji wrapped his arms around Chat Noire’s neck, leaning close to her until they were nose to nose. “Wherever your heart desires.~”_

_“Oh my prince!~” Chat Noire purred. “I’m so happy that I chose you over the unreliable pest in polka dots!”_

_Together, the new couple laughed as Chat Noire jumped from roof to roof towards their dream date. Their laughter echoed mockingly long after their silhouettes disappeared into the sunset._

_And I watched on from behind them, forgotten and unloved, surrounded by my twenty cats who could never quite fill the void the two of them tore from my broken heart. I was not crying. That was just the cats’ saliva staining my cheeks where they licked me. No, I don’t need tissues Fuyu! Stop looking at me with those pitying eyes!!!_

My daytime nightmare ended when I felt someone rubbing my back, trying to ease my coughing fit. My eyes blurry with tears from nearly choking to death, I looked up to see it was Kaji.

“Don’t worry, Shizu,” he comforted. “I’m not after either of them. I ship them too and I am not about to break my best bud’s OTP.”

Phew… Crisis averted.

I can only hope it stays that way. Kaji can have any other girl or guy he wants and I’ll support him all the way, just please leave Chat Noire alone…

“What else made you suspect Blair?” asked Fuyu, thankfully changing the topic to something less stressful.


	5. ShizuChat

**Blair**

As soon as the bell for dismissal rang, I turned over to Keagan. I wonder what he has to say about the latest akuma attack, starring moi.

“Blair, you were awesome yesterday!” he said, pulling out his phone to show the part where I threw my heels at the akuma. “Nice aim by the way.”

I have to agree, I was pretty cool for a damsel in distress. I took the phone from Keagan and made it play the video from the start.

Shizuke and Fiona stopped packing their bags and leaned down to look at the video.

“Must be tough being a famous model,” Fiona commented, eyes narrowing at Stud Muffin announcing his goals. “Having crazy admirers turn into supervillains on a monthly basis doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”

“Nah, Blake has it worse. His fan girls are usually much faster, and come with weirder powers,” I said, remembering Poppyrazzi and her photo blasts. Getting hit with brute strength is definitely easier to handle than getting trapped in a picture.

“They’re still dangerous,” Shizuke pointed out, intently watching the video where Stud Muffin was lifting the car he was about to throw at Ladybug. His glasses gleamed as he fixed it.

_“{You scrawny fiend! You think you can just come here and sweep her off her feet?! I was here first! Be a real man and fight me!}”_

Shizuke and I cringed when the car flew and hit the building instead of Ladybug. I am once again reminded of the wonders of Miraculous Ladybug.

Fiona on the other hand shot an icy glare at Keagan who just shrugged it off. After four months, their arguments about Keagan’s safety have become practically telepathic and they no longer need words to know what the other is going to say. Either that or it’s because they’re childhood friends and know each other well enough.

And now the video’s playing at the part where I threw my heels at Stud Muffin’s eyes. Fiona whistled, amusement flickering in her eyes.

“Gotta give the girl some props, Shizu,” she said, nudging her friend by the shoulder. “Girl’s got guts.”

Wow. That’s the nicest thing she’s ever said about me. Well, she doesn’t say much about me in general, but she doesn’t throw compliments at me before either.

Keagan was giving me a knowing look along with his infamous ‘shipping grin’. Oh no, don’t-

“You know Blair, if I didn’t already ship LadyNoire, I would’ve shipped Ladybug with you instead,” he teased.

I try not to give him the evil eye. Instead, I smiled like the professional model I am.

“Ah, but there’s a risk to dating a superhero that I’m just not willing to take. I wouldn’t want to be seen as the perfect hostage for the akuma to target and force Ladybug to give up his Miraculous for me.”

“But you’re forgetting that you’re a very badass damsel and have proven that you can handle yourself,” Keagan mockingly argued.

“Shh! Chat Noire showed up!” Shizuke shushed us up without tearing his eyes off the video.

_“{So I heard you like redheads},” Chat Noire smirked as she made her entrance after deflecting a hit meant for Ladybug with her staff._

Shizuke was leaning on his desk to get a closer look. I can practically feel his breathing over my shoulder. His eyes were practically sparkling through his glasses, and his cheeks were lightly tinted pink as he stared at the black cat heroine.

I moved the phone in my hand to the left. His head turned to the left.

I moved the phone in my hand to the right. His head turned to the right.

I raised a brow at that.

Keagan is holding back a snicker. Fiona is shaking her head with an amused smile. I raised my brow at them, tilting my head to the nerd, hoping for an explanation.

“Shizu has a huge celebrity crush on Chat Noire,” Keagan whispered.

“He thinks he’s being low-key about it, but almost everybody knows by now,” Fiona added.

“What if he hears?” I hissed, glancing between the three and praying Shizuke doesn’t hear us.

“As long as Chat Noire is on screen, he won’t be hearing anyone. He only gives that kind of attention to teachers when they’re discussing lessons. There is no way we can distract him until the video ends,” Keagan explained.

_“{ARGH! STUPID! CARING! SAFETY OBSESSED! BUG!}”_

I heard my heroic alterego yell loudly from the phone and looked back at the video. Both of the heroes have left the scene and the ex-villain was hidden behind the squad of parameds. The video finishes off with Keagan’s ending remarks.

The Keagan sitting next to me had a very smug grin plastered on his face.

“So Shizu, did you enjoy the little LadyNoire at the end?” he said while casually taking back his phone from my hands.

Shizuke nearly jumped out of his chair and quickly turned his head towards Keagan so fast, I’m surprised he didn’t break his neck. The flustered nerd shakily adjusted his glasses, realizing he had been in a trance. “W-what?”

Keagan’s smug grin evolved into his standard ‘shipping grin’.

Blair. Stay calm. Don’t slap Keagan.

“A lot of viewers at the Ladyblog were squealing about how Chat Noire sounded like she was a little jealous when Ladybug left her to look for a certain teen model.”

Curse you Monsieur Ladyblogger!

Strangely enough, Shizuke looks even more flustered. Not a single hint of jealousy. In fact, he looks pretty happy for a guy whose best friend is openly shipping his crush with another dude. Is the bro code truly dead?

“Really?” Shizuke actually looked hopeful when he asked this.

“Some commenters love to point out how she sounds like a tsundere,” Keagan started before going off on his shipping theories.

My phone buzzed in my bag. Ignoring Keagan’s shipping talk, I read the message…

It’s from Keagan.

How he manages to discreetly text on his smartphone while fanboying with Shizuke right in front of me, I will never know.

_Yes, he still has a huge crush on Chat Noire._  
_Yes, he also ships LadyNoire and is the shadow lord captain of the ship._  
_Don’t ask me why or how. He won’t tell me. He’ll just deny it._  
_I think it’s because he thinks he doesn’t have a chance so he ships Chat Noire with who he thinks is best for her, which is Ladybug._

Oh. If that’s the case, then what if a certain cat pays him a visit? Maybe he’ll be more willing to give away a copy of his chart if it was his crush asking for it.

0-0-0-0-0

**Shizuke**

I was just about to get ready for bed after moving around the tulips I’m helping my grandmother grow on my balcony for the night when an unexpected visitor arrived. Tikki had just enough time to warn me and fly out of sight before Chat Noire dropped in.

“Good evening citizen! Just your friendly neighbourhood kitty dropping by for a visit!” my partner greeted, balanced on my balcony railing. She grinned smugly as she eyed me from head to toe. “Nice PJ’s. The bunnies are cute.”

I chose the wrong day to wear my light blue pyjamas with the pink rabbits. I suppose it’s still better than being caught in the black ones with the neon green paw prints. Chat Noire doesn’t need any more teasing material.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” I yelped.

Chat Noire doesn’t even look fazed by my outburst. She cutely tilted her head to the side and asked, “Why? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

There is no way that I’m not blushing at this point. I slapped myself in the face just to make sure I’m not dreaming.

Ouch. That hurt. Chat Noire’s still on my balcony. I’m not dreaming this. This is actually happening!

“It’s not that I’m not happy to see you, it’s just that this is the first time I have a superhero dropping by on my balcony- not that I’m opposed to it- I’ve always dreamed of meeting you like-“

Whoa! Too much information! Stop rambling!

“- I mean, yes I’m happy to see you!” I squeaked. Then I realized what I said and nearly fainted from mortification.

Why is this so hard? I don’t have this problem when I’m ‘Ladybug’! I should get a conversation going, move on from my slip up. But what to talk about? Think think think…

“Oh wait, I haven’t introduced myself! Ahahaha… where are my manners?! My name’s Shizuke Midorikawa! Age 15, born on May 4th! Blood Type O! And I uh…” I realized I just spazzed and told her my entire profile like a crazy person.

Chat Noire is laughing at me. It’s a cute laugh…

Where is an akuma when you need one?! Please! Somebody throw a car at me!

“Are you gonna let me in?” Chat Noire asked with an amused grin.

I numbly opened the door and let her in first. The only saving grace is the fact that I always keep my room clean and organized.

My bed sat at a corner of my room, not a single wrinkle on its pristine white sheets. My wooden study desk where my desktop sat was cleared of any clutter and my extra reference books are arranged in alphabetical order on the shelf above it. My closet full of freshly ironed hand-me-downs is closed and there’s not a single article of clothing in sight. All my magazine clippings of Blair and that cork board and red yarn I use to piece together evidence of her moonlighting as Hawkmoth are all safely hidden under my bed. Wouldn’t want her getting the wrong idea like Fuyu did. I can only wish she doesn’t notice my Ladybug and Chat Noire poster taped securely above my bed.

My grandmother has already gone to bed after a long day of tending her flower shop below our apartment, so as long as we stay quiet enough, she wouldn’t even know Chat Noire was here.

“Your room must get plenty of sunshine in the morning, huh?” she commented, looking around my mint green room. Her smug grin widened when she saw the poster.

A girl is in _my room._

 _Chat Noire_ is in my room.

_The love of my life is in my room!_

“Well, my room is on the same side of the building as my grandmother’s flower shop downstairs and the flowers could use all the sunshine they can ge-“ I stopped mid ramble when my brain finally caught up to what should be the biggest point of concern in the room. “Wait, why are you here again?”

Oh thank goodness my mind hasn’t completely turned to mush. Of course she has a reason for being here. This can’t be a casual fan visit. I’ve been her partner for a little more than four months. I should know that Chat Noire doesn’t do anything this risky without a reason. She may be vain and cocky, but she’s also efficient and deliberate with her actions. This girl will get the job done no matter what.

… I’ve… learned that the hard way.

“Ooh, clever boy,” she snickered as she sauntered over my desktop, and twirled a black flashdrive around her claw. “I heard you’ve got a record of all of the akuma attacks.”

“How did you-“

“Not important,” the smirk on her face hasn’t left, but the tone of her voice sounded all business. “Do you mind giving me a copy? I’ll autograph your pencil case if you want.~”

Of all the people in this city, Chat Noire is the one I should share this info with...

“Yes, I do mind.”

Chat Noire flailed indignantly at my flat rejection. I’ll admit, it’s kinda cute to watch her composure crumble.

“Why?!”

Because I can’t give you a reason to keep visiting me! I know your line of thinking. First, you’ll ask me for a copy of my chart. After a few more akuma show up, you’ll ask for an updated copy. Then you’ll ask me to add more details or if I’ve noticed any new patterns recently. ‘Shizuke Midorikawa’ will become your go-to guy for information. The cycle will just go on and on and on until either Hawkmoth is defeated or Hawkmoth gets wise and notices how often a certain black cat visits a certain apartme-“

I froze mid-rant, suddenly realizing that at some point, my INTERNAL monologue became my EXTERNAL dialogue.

“Ooh, that’s a great idea! You know, I was just gonna ask for a copy thinking I could figure something out of it, but you’re onto something there… How about you become our informant? If you’re worried about the danger, I’ll be extra careful to protect you. I’m sure Ladybug would be thrilled to meet you!”

… Did I just give her that idea?! I face-palmed at my own stupidity… And stopped myself from face-palming again because it hurts to do so with my glasses on. This whole thing is stupid!

Chat Noire randomly visits me in the middle of the night to ask me for a copy of my akuma chart. Then she tries to recruit ME to be her and LADYBUG’s info broker. And now she’s talking about how well Ladybug and I would get along! What is even happening here?!

This complication could’ve been avoided if she knew who I am! But of course, she isn’t ready for a reveal and as her loyal partner I intend to follow through with her decision to the bitter end!

“Hey now, what’s with that face?”

I peeked between my fingers and saw that she’s moved from my desktop to just a few centimeters right in front of me. Why Chat Noire?! Why must you lack the concept of personal space?!

“What face?” I grimaced behind my hand, which I haven’t moved to cover my surely red cheeks.

Chat Noire pouted then placed one hand on her hip and the other pointed a clawed finger to my face.

“ _That_ face. Shouldn’t you be more excited?” she tilted her head in mock curiosity.

I removed my hand from my face and fixed my glasses to properly face her.

“No I’m not. This will just get me on Hawkmoth’s hit list, I just know it!”

Her smirk wavered. Chat Noire is starting to get frustrated with my stubbornness. Her feral green eyes are practically glowing like fire.

“But this is your chance to help! Don’t you wanna be a hero?”

Chat Noire, you have no idea how much that question haunts me since day one. And every time I ask myself that, I can only come up with one answer:

“… I just want my family and friends to stay safe.”

Her cat ears drooped down and the fire in her eyes dimmed to something gentler. Was that pity? Or maybe it was sympathy?

“Oh. If you’re that worried about getting targeted for this, I can promise you that Ladybug and I can keep them safe.”

We’ve seen what Hawkmoth can do. She won’t hesitate to hurt children to get our Miraculous. I don’t know what I’d do if she targets my family and friends. I’m sure I can count on Chat Noire but I can’t just keep depending on her. What if she’s not strong enough for the both of us? I don’t know if I’m strong enough to...

“Even with _Ladybug’s_ help, I doubt you can protect us all,” I still remember the first akuma… Kaji’s screams… the fear in Fuyu’s eyes… I clench my fists to stop myself from shaking at the memory. I promised myself to never let that happen again. “Besides, this chart probably doesn’t have anything that you don’t already know.”

I would’ve told Chat Noire about the chart myself, as Ladybug of course, if I actually did found something useful! But until I have irrefutable evidence that Blair is Hawkmoth, I wouldn’t want to point Chat Noire her way. Chat Noire can be scary brutal when she thinks it’s necessary for the greater good. 

While I’m mostly sure that Blair is Hawkmoth, there’s still a small chance that she isn’t. Tikki never fails to remind me of that. Kaji didn’t believe me at all when I told him. I wouldn’t want to lead Chat Noire the wrong way.

“But…” she tried to argue, but I refuse to hear the rest of it.

“I hope you understand. This isn’t a risk I’m willing to take. I wouldn’t want Hawkmoth to see me as the perfect hostage.”

The words felt somewhat familiar, but I’m not quite sure where I heard it before. Chat Noire’s face hardens. Then suddenly softens into a mischievous grin.

Oh no.

“You’ll be doing Helios a favour by helping the heroes out with this info,” she pleaded. With kitten eyes. She tilts her head, raises her paws in a begging position, and pouts. “Can you pleeeeease give it to me?” she drawled.

She’s so adorable!

WHY?!?! WHY ME?!?!?!

There’s only one thing I can do…

“GRANDMA!!!” I screamed as I ran out the door and towards my grandmother’s room, just across from mine.

I did not look back, not even when Chat Noire made shrieking noises that sounded exactly like an actual startled cat’s, nor when I heard the sounds of books falling pots breaking on my creaky wooden floor. I hastily knocked on the door to my grandmother’s bedroom, not daring to look back in case Chat Noire's retreat was just a ruse. 

Soon enough, my grandmother opened the door and I was fortunate enough to have Ladybug’s enhanced reflexes to dodge her cane. Wow, grandmother swings that cane well for an old lady with a limp leg.

“AKUMA?!?!?!” she looked as pale as a ghost while sweating puddles through her black pinstriped yukata. Her bony hands were shakily gripping her wooden cane in a defensive position, and her blue-ish white hair was in disarray.

Yikes, I must’ve scared her.

“Uuh, no. I just had a nightmare, ahaha…”

Grandmother immediately shifted from looking ready to whack someone with her cane to her normal look of stern righteous fury.

“That’s it?”

I stiffly nodded. “… Can I sleep in your room tonight?”

Grandmother levelled me with a look that says _‘I don’t believe you’_.

“We’ll have a talk about this tomorrow. GOOD NIGHT.”

Too tired to properly discipline me for rudely awakening her, she settled on slamming the door on my face.

“She’s gone now,” Tikki said, flying out of her hiding place from somewhere in my room. “I can no longer sense her.”

“Hmm… I think I’ll just sleep in the couch tonight.”

I’m sure I’ll get a stern lecture tomorrow morning, but it’s worth it. I’d rather face my angry grandmother than a cutely begging Chat Noire.

“For what it’s worth, I think you did a good job today.”

Yeah, I did a splendid job today.

I stopped Chat Noire from recruiting _‘Shizuke Midorikawa’_.

I didn’t break down when I was practically telling her what I’m afraid of.

I didn’t let her know I’m _‘Ladybug’_.

“Thanks Tikki,” I whispered as I settled on the couch and waited for sleep to settle in.

_“Miraculous! Simply the best! Up to the test when things go wrong!~”_

I heard my phone ring from my room, singing the alarm I’ve set specifically for the Ladyblog. I can already guess what it’s about. I better mentally prepare for tomorrow.

0-0-0-0-0

**Blair**

“I almost had him!” I screamed into my pillow. I kicked around my purple comforter to let out more of my pent up frustration.

Plagg, being the bottomless well of support that he is, took out a round of camembert to munch on. The nasty smell did nothing to improve my mood.

“Mad that your seduction skills didn’t work?” he said in between chewing, perched on top of my mini fridge I bought for the sole purpose of stashing his disgusting magic fuel that I refuse to acknowledge as cheese.

I looked over my shoulder and leered at the flying black cat as drops of camembert flew out of his mouth and onto my gray woollen carpet.

“Pulling an adorable Puss-in-Boots stare hardly counts as seduction.”

On a normal day, Shizuke is amusing. But today, he was difficult. No, more than that, he was _aggravating_.

Two weeks of trying to befriend him as ‘Blair’ did nothing to ease his humorously mistaken suspicions and let me borrow his phone so I can send myself a copy that chart. The ‘exchanging numbers’ excuse is moot since Shizuke-The-Amazing-Crazy-Prepared-Class-Prez has exchanged numbers with everyone in class the day he got elected. I’m not even gonna try to tell him straight up that I’m not Hawkmoth because that’s exactly what the real Hawkmoth would say. I can’t tell him that I just wanted a copy of his top secret chart; I’ll look even more suspicious if I know. Snatching his phone isn’t even an option. His guard goes up whenever I get too close to him.

It felt like a battle of wills between us, and after two weeks, he’s proven himself to be my most difficult opponent yet. Since when were teenaged boys immune to my charm? Most guys would be wrapped around my finger by now!

But then it turns out he’s not completely immune after all. Learning about his crush on ‘Chat Noire’, I thought: Why not take the short cut?

This was supposed to be a cinch! Use his already existent infatuation towards ‘Chat Noire’ to persuade him into giving me a copy. But nope! For some reason, he refuses to cooperate. I already reassured him of his safety.

 _“Even with_ Ladybug’s _help, I doubt you can protect us all,” he firmly said, like nothing I can say could change his mind. He may seem calm, but I can tell he’s afraid by how tightly he closed his shaking fists._

I barely managed to hold my temper at that. Just the memory of it still angers me. It’s like he’s underestimating us. That look of fear in his face said it all. He doesn’t believe Ladybug and I can protect him along with everyone else.

_“The heroes will get her one day. I believe in that.”_

I remembered what he said the day after Ladybug and I failed to capture Hawkmoth… It felt like so long ago. He used to have so much faith in us. What happened?

“His chart doesn’t even sound like it’d have anything you don’t already know,” said Plagg, cutting through my thoughts. Having finished his roll of camembert, he licked his paws clean of the disgusting stuff. 

“But he may have noticed patterns that neither I nor Ladybug have. A fresh outsider’s perspective could be useful.”

Plagg floated over to my bed and stretched contentedly like a real cat on my other pillow by my side. “Why didn’t you just steal it? You had the perfect chance while he was having dinner with his grandma.”

I scoffed, the very idea offends me. I have no plans on following the archetype Catwoman has set for feline heroines. “It’s one thing for _‘Blair’_ to snatch a classmate’s phone for a few minutes; it’s another thing for _‘Chat Noire’_ to break into a civilian’s house just to steal his phone. I’d rather keep that option as a last resort.”

“Just give it up. This is too much trouble for what it’s worth. If you’re so eager, why don’t you just make your own chart?”

Now that’s a first. Plagg can be sensible sometimes.

“That’s a reasonable suggestion Plagg… Except, I don’t even know the names of most of the victims. I hardly remember the exact times when they happened. Heck, I don’t even remember the dates of the batch of akuma on the second month, because that’s when akuma attacks started to feel like the norm around here-”

“Then leave it at that. It’s not worth all the fuss you’re making because of it.”

“Plagg, Shizuke’s chart may help track down Hawkmoth, or find a pattern to help us predict the next possible victim!”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Just focus on dealing with what’s in front of you. Whatever Hawkmoth throws at you now will always be more important than what she might throw at you next week.”

I stared at the god of destruction with amazement at his rare ‘words of wisdom’. It’s easy to forget that Plagg has been alive for thousands of years. I should’ve expected him to know the right things to say to cut through my logic after dealing with tons of charges in his immortal life. I slump my head down my pillow to smother an unwelcomed laugh at being caught off guard.

“I hate it when you say something smart and I can’t come up with a witty comeback.”

I don’t need to look to know Plagg heard me anyway and was grinning like the cat that got the cream. Or, more appropriately in his case, the kwami that got the camembert. Eww.

“I’ve dealt with ambitious villain types like her before. She’ll make another grand appearance sooner or later. So just relax and focus on keeping up my camembert supply until then.”

And then he ruins it, like the smug little twerp he is.

“Of course. We’re gonna need all the energy we can get for the epic final battle,” I played along. He has a point though, I’ll give him that.

“Exactly.”

There was a moment of peaceful silence. Such a rare thing ever since Plagg came along.

Plagg suddenly grins. I should’ve known it was too good to last.

“You know, that glasses kid just used your own words against you in the most roundabout way possible.”

“What do you…”

And then it clicked.

_“Ah, but there’s a risk to dating a superhero that I’m just not willing to take. I wouldn’t want to be seen as the perfect hostage for the akuma to target and force Ladybug to give up his Miraculous for me.”_

_“I hope you understand. This isn’t a risk I’m willing to take. I wouldn’t want Hawkmoth to see me as the perfect hostage.”_

… Oh, right. No wonder that sounded familiar.

“You can basically sum up all his arguments against being your informant with what you just told Keagan about LadyBlair,” Plagg snickered.

“Thank you for pointing that out, Plagg,” I darkly muttered as I slumped into my bed.

I heard my phone ring by my side. I checked what it was about. I groaned into my pillow at the latest post on the Ladyblog:

_Chat Noire Patrolling Alone: Ladybug Not Spotted!_

It’s official. The universe hates me.


	6. LadyNoire

**Blair**

It was no surprise that I wasn’t able to concentrate at school at all the next day. How can I?

After that stunt I pulled last night, I can only wish that it wouldn’t reach Ladybug. It would’ve been fine if I managed to convince Shizuke to give me a copy of that chart, but nope! Times like these, I wish I didn’t have enhanced hearing. Ladybug isn’t known for being merciful to people’s ears. And that’s not even the worst case scenario.

Shizuke is sitting right behind me. He’s glaring at me as usual, being awfully chipper for someone who was definitely up past his bed time. His glasses couldn’t hide the dark circles around his eyes. But that’s not concerning. What I’m really worried about is if he tells Keagan about last night.

“You look out of it,” Keagan told me as soon as the bells for dismissal rang. His eyes are narrowed like he’s trying to collect clues as to why I’m not at peak beauty.

“I just didn’t get enough sleep last night, that’s all. I’ll be fine after a quick nap…”

“If you say so,” Keagan said sounding unconvinced.

As I sleepily gathered my things, he turned right behind us to Shizuke and Fiona.

“Have you heard of the Chat Noire sightings last night?”

Crud. That jolted my half-asleep brain.

“What’s that about?” asked Fiona.

“People posted on the Ladyblog about Chat Noire running around the city last night, but there was no sight of Ladybug.”

Double crud. Now I’m sure Ladybug would know by the time we have our usual patrols. Let me just kiss my sense of hearing goodbye.

“What could she be running around for?” asked Shizuke in a tone too stiff for the casual question, his eyes so intensely focused on Keagan’s his glasses are practically glowing.

… You’re not gonna tell your BFF?

Fiona gave Shizuke a long hard stare, also noticing how weird it is that her nerd friend isn’t fan boying. Thankfully, she kept quiet about it.

“I have no idea…” Keagan glumly said, too busy staring at his phone to notice how Shizuke is acting more stiff than usual.

“Maybe she’s just doing extra patrols but didn’t want to bother Ladybug,” Shizuke suggested, sounding like he’s reading off a script and failing to add his usual passion to his words.

Keagan furrowed his brows at Shizuke and then he sighed, his shoulders slumping down in defeat.

“… Maybe you’re right,” Keagan hesitantly agreed, either he miraculously didn’t notice his friend’s bad acting, or just didn’t care because what he said had solid logic. “Ugh… And I thought I had a scoop just now! An extra patrol night doesn’t sound like it’s worth posting an article about.”

Shizuke Midorikawa, I could almost kiss you right now. You have no idea how you just helped me save face!

Now all I have to worry about is Ladybug at patrol tomorrow.

0-0-0-0-0

**Shizuke**

I’ve been pacing from one side of my room to the other in the past hour, mentally debating with myself on whether or not this is a good idea.

“What are you thinking about?” Tikki asked, floating by my side. Maybe a second opinion would be for the best.

“I was wondering if it’s alright to tell Chat Noire who I really am.”

“Shizuke, you know it’s for your own safety why you can’t tell her…”

“I know, but after what happened last night, I just thought it might be safer if she knew.”

“Last night could just be a one-time thing. Just tell Chat Noire not to visit civilians like that anymore. I’m sure she’ll understand,” Tikki insisted.

“It’s not just that, Tikki. She knew about my akuma chart. I’ve only told Kaji and Fuyu about it once, back in the bakery two weeks ago. That’s the most likely time she could’ve learned about it that I can think of.”

“Shizuke, please carefully think this through…”

“What are the odds that she would be in the very same bakery as I was that day?”

“Well, you two did just take down an akuma nearby. Maybe she just ate lunch there for convenience. It could just be a coincidence.”

“And she knows where I _LIVE_!”

“… Okay, that is a bit concerning,” Tikki reluctantly agreed, but I was already on a roll.

“What if we know each other as civilians? Who could she possibly be? She seems to be around my age… Maybe we go to the same school together!” I gasped at where this line of logic is leading me. “What if we’re in the same class?!”

The possibilities flooded into my head. It was so overwhelming. To think, Chat Noire could be so close… Wait, is it just me, or is the air getting thinner around here?

Tikki zipped up and bopped me on the nose to get my attention. She flew off to a more respectable distance, her tiny arms waving gently. “Calm down! Breathe with me! Breathe in…” she floated up. “Breathe out…” she floated down.

I followed her orders and breathed in time with her floating up and down. After calming down, I reanalysed the facts and decided that the odds of her being a classmate is slimmer than none. We’ve been doing this for almost an entire semester. I’m sure we would’ve noticed each other’s disappearance during akuma attacks at this point. Even if the glamour prevents us from recognizing each other, it would be ridiculous if we don’t notice anything if we’re that close to each other every day.

“Better?” Tikki asked, still looking over me worriedly with big blue eyes and her antennas bobbing down.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, tiredly sitting down on my bed to continue telling Tikki my thoughts and explain my idea in a calmer way. I’d rather do this with Tikki’s approval.

“Tikki, I just want you to know that I understand the dangers of telling people my secret. I always wanted to tell Kaji and Fuyu but-“

“You can’t.”

“They won’t take it well. I know that more than anyone… They’ll feel strongly about this and Hawkmoth will surely take advantage of them.”

“Fiona’s already not taking Keagan’s Ladyblogging well as it is. What more if she finds out you’re jumping at akumas too?”

That thought made me shudder. Can you imagine an akumatized Fuyu? She’s guaranteed to be one of the strongest akuma, and what’s worse, she’ll be directly targeting me.

“That’s why I listened to you and hid my double life from them.”

Tikki hovered over my face and nuzzled my cheek.

“I know it’s hard for you to keep secrets from them. You’re honest to a fault.”

“Or I’m just bad at lying. One whole night of practicing my lies to Kaji earlier and I still just barely managed it.”

Tikki giggled at my attempt at humor. I laughed with her.

“That too. But it’s for their own safety and I’m proud of you for keeping it a secret.”

I fell back on my bed. The poster I taped on the ceiling stared back at me. I taped it up there in the early days of being Ladybug as a reminder that I didn’t just dream up a weird fantasy. It was a poster of Ladybug and Chat Noire, standing side by side as the proud heroes of the city. My pulse raced at just the sight of my partner.

Tikki floated up to block my view.

“But this isn’t about them,” Tikki said, bringing us back to the original topic.

“Chat Noire is different from them,” I said. “It’s not just because we’re both living double lives. Chat Noire is more even-tempered than Kaji and Fuyu, and she can keep a level head in almost any situation.”

“And you think she’s the best person to trust?”

“Who better? If anyone’s going to take my secret well, it would be her.”

“I think it may be too soon.”

“We’ve been a team for a little over four months. I think it’s about time. If she still wants my akuma chart, it’ll be easier for me to hand it over to her without worrying about giving away my secret identity by accident. This can even help make Ladybug and Chat Noire’s connection to our civilian identities even more invisible since meetings like the one I, as Shizuke, just had with Chat Noire would no longer happen. If we need to talk about anything, we’ll just talk hero to hero, or civilian to civilian. Hawkmoth would be less likely to draw connections if we keep our hero identities as far away from our civilian identities as possible.”

“I suppose you have a point there… Are you sure those are your only reasons for this?” Tikki pried with narrowed blue eyes, her tiny arms on her waist like a mother trying to get her children to admit they ate cookies before dinner.

“… Fine. I also think this is a good chance to get to know her better… And maybe we can hang out instead of only meeting during akuma attacks and patrols…” I can feel my cheeks heating up at the idea. I can just imagine it: the two of us going around the city, watching movies, playing at arcades, eating ice cream…

Tikki shook her head. “Shizuke, if you’re going to do this, you better set your priorities in order. It shouldn’t be about improving your chances with your crush. It should be about whether it would be safer for you to keep hiding your identities or to tell each other now so you don’t accidentally give yourselves away at a more crucial time.”

What Tikki said felt like a rush of cold water splashed all over me. My pulse slowed and my face felt less heated than earlier. With all the conviction I can muster, I said, “That won’t be a problem Tikki. Chat Noire is too important to me. Her safety matters more to me than a chance to get closer to her. You have my word.”

0-0-0-0-0

**Chat Noire**

It’s Wednesday night. One of our patrol days.

I nervously wait for Ladybug to arrive at our usual starting point, at the top of the hundred year old tree at Lucia Park.

I heard the familiar zipping of a yoyo chord a few seconds before I saw a red spotted yoyo wraps itself around a tree branch.

Okay, just as I planned. If Ladybug asks about the Chat Noire sightings two nights ago, I’ll tell him I was just stretching my legs with extra patrols. This should be easy.

He started talking as soon as his feet touched the ground. “Hey Chat Noire! I wanted to talk to you about…”

“I’m sorry for badgering a citizen!”

… And that just slipped out. Ugh! He hasn’t even asked me yet!

“W-what?”

I run my hand through my wild red hair and looked away from my partner.

I can keep secrets from him, and drag him into my schemes without telling him first… but I just can’t lie to his face! Never really could, outside of keeping my secret identity. He just has that effect on me. Kinda like Blake.

“Look, Ladybug. I can explain.”

“Explain what?”

And so I went and hurriedly explained what happened. The chart, the fan visit, the less than graceful exit…

“I promise I did NOT break into his house, hack his computer, or steal his stuff! I swear! Cat’s honour!” I was panting by the end of my explanation. I looked away from him, scared of what he’s going to say about this.

More than a loud scolding, I’m more scared of losing that heroic image he has of me. Ruining our partnership is the worst case scenario.

“It’s okay.”

I looked back up to him. There was a tentative smile on his face as he awkwardly patted my shoulder. It was enough to calm me down.

“Maybe you could go and apologize to him someday. I’m sure he’ll forgive you. Just don’t go visiting him like that again anytime soon so you don’t accidentally turn him into a target.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank God…”

Just when I thought I was out of the woods, he asked, “How DID you know about his record of akuma attacks?”

“Uhh…”

“If he wanted people to know about it, he would’ve posted it on the Ladyblog. It’s a very public site where anyone could’ve submitted stuff to Keagan,” he pressed, trying too hard to sound casual about it. “How did you know about it?”

“… Let’s just say I was there when he was explaining his chart to his friends. I can’t tell you any more than that.”

“Ooh, okay then...”

Times like these remind me of why he’s my most trusted partner. He doesn’t pry if it makes me uncomfortable. He puts so much trust in me.

That’s why I just can’t do anything to break that trust, like lie or break into my classmate’s house to steal his info. He deserves better than that… Aaand I’ll get an even bigger scolding if he finds out. One of the downsides of having enhanced hearing is that I have a loudmouth of a partner who is prone to scolding at the top of his lungs.

“… Uhm… Chat Noire, have you ever considered revealing ourselves to each other?”

… Oh crud.

Well, at least he asked first. But my decision against it still stands.

“No. Ladybug, no.”

“But-“

“Let’s just start patrol. Later Bugsy!” I said, vaulting out of the tree and onto the nearest building.

But Ladybug didn’t drop the topic.

What’s gotten into him?!

“I think we should put more thought into this before we decide whether or not this would be a bad idea!” Ladybug negotiated.

“No!” I yelled back, not caring what for he had to say. I have my reasons.

“I’ve thought this through, and there’s so many benefits if we do! I’ll enumerate it for you!”

“No!”

“It’ll strengthen our bond!”

“No!”

“It’ll make contacting each other easier!”

“No!”

“We can spar together without anyone bothering us!”

“No!”

“No more running away from each other when we our time runs out!”

“No!”

“We can share hiding spots!”

“No!”

“Fans won’t mob us if we go and get ice cream together as civilians!”

“No!”

Why is he being persistent?! If only I could just shut a door on him or end hang up on him...

“… Don’t you trust me?”

If it weren’t for my enhanced hearing, I wouldn’t have heard him.

I stopped by the top of the department store’s building and waited for him to catch up. As soon as I heard him land, I settled a firm gaze at him.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Ladybug… It’s just that, I’m afraid of what this will do to our partnership.”

For reasons I don’t know, he just doesn’t like me behind the mask. He’s colder around me as Blair, and has never called me by name. Considering the kind of person Ladybug is there’s a really good chance that his strange aloofness towards Blair will definitely affect our teamwork, try as he might to not let it show.

“Well, sure, we’ll end up cooperating more outside the mask so there’s definitely going to be changes, and-” he tried to insist, but I cut him off.

“And then there’s the people I live with to think about. They’d be suspicious if I suddenly started hanging out with some guy I’ve just met.”

Blake would surely notice if I start hanging out with a guy out of the blue. He might even get suspicious. He can’t know about my double life! And that’s not even mentioning the Liungs. If those two ever see me spending a lot of time with a guy who isn’t Blake… Let’s just say, it’ll be like living with two _Keagans_.

Ladybug faltered. “… Oh, right… I didn’t think about that…”

“Besides, I’m not even sure if our civilian selves could meet that much anyway.”

As a part time model, I spend most of my free time either catching up on homework or doing photo shoots. The only free time I do have, I spend it to patrol at night, like right now. It’s why we came up with a flexible patrol schedule. Outside akuma attacks, our civilian lives come first.

“And then there’s the possibility of being akumatized. We don't know for sure if we could get akumatized but just in case we do, then at least we don’t know each other as a civilian. We won’t be able to rat each other out to Hawkmoth.”

Plagg was being annoyingly evasive when I asked him about this. Since he refuses to give me a straight answer, then I’m just gonna assume that it is possible. It’s possible that having a Miraculous helps us resist getting akumatized because we have kwamis to give us an outlet to vent out negative emotions. Even a kwami as annoying as Plagg can do that.

“I trust you Ladybug. It’s just that, with the things going on when I’m not Chat Noire, and all the other risks, I don’t think now is the right time. We’re still learning the ropes, and the cons still outweigh the pros. I’d rather not take my chances for now.”

Ladybug slumped down in defeat.

“… Okay. I understand. I’m sorry for being pushy about it.”

The rest of the patrol went on with silence. We both had quite a week, and it’s only Wednesday.

0-0-0-0-0

“Plagg, did I do the right thing?”

“Kid, you know I don’t really care if you reveal who you are to him or not.”

Patrol has ended and Plagg and I are back in my room.

“I know. It’s just… Why was he suddenly so persistent to reveal ourselves? Ladybug never brought this up before. Didn’t his kwami warn him about the dangers of revealing our identities to each other?” I paced from one side of my room to the other with one hand tapping my chin and the other held close to me. “Did something happen? Did I do something? What if…”

Plagg rolled his eyes and unwrapped another slice of camembert. “If it was something important, Ladybug wouldn’t have dropped it as quickly as he did.”

“But…”

“Ladybug is a big boy. Whatever his reasons, he can handle it.”

Maybe he could. But there’s still one more thing gnawing at me: My reasons for wanting to keep my identity a secret. It’s true that I also want my family and the Liungs to stay safe, and make sure my identity stays hidden from Hawkmoth… But when it comes to Ladybug, the biggest motivator for me to keep my secret is…

“I just don’t want him to stop looking at me like a hero. And with his coldness to Blair, I’m afraid he’ll stop if he knew. Plagg, am I being selfish?”

Plagg stopped eating his camembert and looked at me like I’ve grown two heads.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

He bursts out laughing.

I pouted in annoyance.

“I’d be completely lying if I told you you’re not, Miss I-need-my-beautiful-face-for-money!”

I narrowed my eyes to further emphasize my annoyance.

“But you’re improving.”

“Really Plagg?”

“Really. You actually care about that noisy bug. It’s a step up from how you started.”

I was expecting the black cat to ruin the moment any second after that, but he never did. He just continued to noisily eat his camembert. I smiled at that thought as I drifted off to sleep.

0-0-0-0-0

**Shizuke**

After patrol, I made my way into my room. I automatically caught Tikki and went over to my cookie jar. Sensing my mood, Tikki flew out of my hands and over to my head, patting it gently.

“It’s okay Shizuke…”

That’s all she can really say that wouldn’t come off as a variation of ‘I told you so’. She only barely agreed to the reveal because of all the reasons I’ve laid out. Her only condition was to ask Chat Noire first, which was something I would’ve done anyway.

“It’s not like I wasn’t expecting this.”

“To be fair, your strongest argument involves Chat Noire’s unexpected visit that night. You can’t use that without revealing yourself before she agrees to a reveal.”

Right. It all boiled down to that, which was why Tikki agreed to this at all.

“I know that she isn’t exactly thrilled with the idea from the start, but I thought if I could just tell her my side of things, maybe she’d see the benefits of a reveal… I didn’t even consider how it would look strange if two virtual strangers suddenly started hanging out.”

“I’m sure the two of you would’ve figured something out eventually,” Tikki encouraged.

“And then there’s her family potentially noticing it. I don’t have that problem with both of my parents working overseas and my grandmother being busy with her shop.”

“Well, most kids your age have parents that wouldn’t mind if their kids get a new friend out of the blue as long as the friend doesn’t seem like a bad influence. Don’t feel too bad if you didn’t consider that.”

I petted Tikki’s head to show how I appreciate her attempts to cheer me up. While I know that she would rather we keep our identities a secret from each other, it’s nice to know that Tikki is still as supportive and as encouraging as ever.

“I wasn’t expecting much out of revealing ourselves besides a closer friendship and convenience.”

There’s this part of me that is head-over-heels for her that did hope that this may help my chances with her… But the more rational part of me nagged that a person as amazing as her is probably way out of my league, even without the mask, and that I should be content with a better friendship.

“All I was really thinking was how much easier things could be if we revealed ourselves to each other. I just can’t stand hiding things from people. Having Chat Noire know would’ve lightened that burden. I didn’t think much about how Chat Noire would’ve felt or the risks I’m asking her to take. All I was thinking of was how convenient it would’ve been for me… Tikki, am I selfish?”

“Well, you have your moments… While you were being pushy, at least you asked her about it first and respected her decision to not to.”

“Thanks for being honest.”

And I mean it. At least I still have Tikki and I’ll always be grateful for her presence. I’m not sure how I would’ve handled all of this hero stuff without her.

“The two of you are just not ready yet. Just give it more time Shizuke.”


	7. A Concerned Brother's Reaction To The Love Square

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for something a little different: a POV from someone who isn't Shizuke or Blair! Most of this chapter happened in the background of the past four chapters with a few added bonus scenes that I couldn't put there because it'll ruin the flow. This is the chapter where Blake's cool guy appeal will be permanently ruined! Wahahahaha!

**Blake**

This is the story of how I fell into shipping hell.

0-0-0-0-0

{LADYNOIRE}

It was a rainy Saturday night, and what better way to spend it than waste away in my room and rot my eyes off by spending hours on the internet? Like everyone else living in this city, my search history is filled with searches for the new heroes... But lately, finding the topics about them that I want has been getting harder and harder to find.

When I typed _‘Ladybug and Chat Noire teamwork’_ , I was hoping for pages talking about their awesome teamwork, how they balance each other and cover their weaknesses. Instead, I got a flood of pages talking about their chemistry and how compatible they are together.

When I tried to be more specific and typed _‘Ladybug and Chat Noire fighting well together’_ , I got pages about people arguing on which one of them is more likely to die for the other.

When I gave up and typed _‘Ladybug and Chat Noire’_ , hoping a general topic would help me find something about them other than their relationship, all I got were endless posts of people speculating a possible romance between them.

“What’re you searching for?”

“What are you doing in my room?” I spun my chair to face my twin sister, who was laying stomach first on my bed reading something.

“I was bored,” she rolled herself over so she was lying on her back. “And so what if I’m in your room? We used to share a room all the time,” she swung her legs up before she flipped herself off my bed.

I rolled my eyes at her attempts to evade my question. “Does this have something to do with the weird smell in your room? You better not be trying to spread it here.”

Seriously, her room has been smelling awfully funky lately and I hope my room doesn’t start smelling like hers soon.

She stiffened for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, before she groaned in mock defeat.

“Fine. I came for your comics!” she said as she waved what she had been reading earlier, which turned out to be one of my issues of Spider-Man.

“What did I tell you about buying your own comics?” I said in a stern tone and folded my arms across my chest. Those comics are limited editions and should be handled with utmost care!

“The same thing I told you whenever I catch you playing with my action figures, to which you’d reply, _‘why buy my own when I can borrow yours for free?’_ ,” she grinned smugly, “Great life philosophy, bro. Wise words I now live by.”

My brain failed to give me an answer that wouldn’t make me sound like a hypocrite so I chose to shut up. I should’ve known she’d use that against me some day.

Blair stretched her arms up carelessly in the air as she walked over to me and my desktop and looked over my shoulder to read my latest web searches.

“Why are you searching for _LadyNoire_?” she said, full of disdain as she spat the word.

“Lady-what?” I asked, annoyance temporarily forgotten.

“ _LadyNoire_ ,” her nose scrunched in irritation. “It’s what people call the ‘romantic relationship between Ladybug and Chat Noire’ these days.”

“The what now?”

“Exactly bro. People are crazy. Their relationship is purely platonic!” she finished her vent with a face-first flop to my bed.

“I don’t know sis. Pretty sure Ladybug has a crush on Chat Noire.”

Thinking about the bug hero, he does get flustered around the cat heroine when they’re not busy fighting akuma. It’s as clear as day whenever the Ladyblogger interviews them. He looks at her like she hung the flipping moon or some romantic stuff like that.

“No. He just looks up to her because she’s super cool.”

Honestly, I think that’s part of the reason for his crush on her. But being the older and wiser twin, I know when an argument is moot so I chose to just hum in agreement rather than continue fighting her on this. If Blair wants to believe there’s nothing romantic between the two heroes, fine by me.

Personally, I think they’d make a good couple, but whatever their relationship is, it’s their business. It’s their life and I have nothing to do with it. Aside from being rescued from rabid akumatized fans every month, I have no connection to them. We are complete strangers. Whatever happens between them, it won’t affect me in any way, shape or form. I wouldn’t be bummed if they don’t end up together.

Frankly, I’m more interested in finding out who they really are behind the mask. Things like how old they are, where they go to school, hobbies … And most importantly, how they got their powers. But that’s a thought for another day. I opened another tab and decided to search for movie reviews, giving up on my hero research for the day.

Blair stayed quiet for the rest of the night and continued to roll around my bed while taking out more of my comics. Anything I say about her getting her own stuff went completely ignored.

When it was getting late, she rolled off my bed to stretch. She let out a big yawn and made her way to my door, not bothering at all to clean up the mess of comic books she made- aside from Spider-Man, there’s Batman, Catwoman, Beast Boy, Black Panther, Antman, Black Cat, Mockingbird, Black Widow… What’s with all the animal themed heroes?

Before she left my room, she gave me an ominous warning.

“Blake, you’re so innocent when it comes to the horrible world of shipping. Please stay that way and don’t let Keagan corrupt you too.”

Those are the words of wisdom I wished I’ve taken to heart and followed to my dying breath.

0-0-0-0-0

{SHIZUBLAIR}

Now what really kickstarted my dilemma happened at that fateful lunch break a week after the Poppyrazzi incident.

Normally, Blair and I would find a nice quiet place to eat our packed lunches together. Sometimes, we’d eat out somewhere that serves whatever our diet plan would approve of. Even rarer times, we indulge and eat whatever we felt like eating.

But then there are days like today where my dearest sister just disappears and I have no idea where she went.

“Oh, you too? Shizu’s also been disappearing a lot lately,” said Fiona, in between chewing her lunch.

During those days when Blair would flake on me, I end up having lunch with Keagan and Fiona. We’ve bonded after they saved me from Poppyrazzi and realized we have something in common: We’re all kindred spirits in getting ditched by the people closest to us.

“Hmm… Now that I think about it, whenever he disappears, Blair’s missing too,” Keagan dropped his thinking pose and adopted what Blair likes to call his signature ‘shipping grin’. “Secretly dating, perhaps?”

Fiona and I rolled our eyes. Leave it to Keagan to somehow make this all about romance. And of all the people, he just had to pick on my sister.

“That’s unlikely,” Fiona flatly said.

I hummed my agreement. Blair and Shizuke hardly interact. And when they do, they don’t get along. Shizuke is the last person in school that I could imagine pairing up with Blair. They’re just so… different. And I don’t just mean that in the ‘Beauty and the Geek’ sense. I never would’ve thought of them as a potential couple until Keagan just had to suggest it!

“Oh come on! It’s not that ridiculous!” Keagan said defensively.

“If he really is crushing on Blair, everyone would’ve known,” Fiona countered, her icy blue eyes casting a glare that can stop anyone cold.

Good point. The way he glares every time he sees Blair, I think it’s clear to everyone that he still hates my sister.

“But what about that one time you suggested it after you found all those magazine clip-“

“Kaji, that was a joke,” Fiona firmly said, her pupils quickly darting towards me before glaring back at Keagan to keep quiet about it.

… I miss my twin. At least she wouldn’t make me feel like a third wheel.

“Oh, right, the brother is here,” Keagan said, suddenly remembering I exist. He turned to face me, grin growing wider as he did so.

I scooted away from Keagan, my instincts screaming at me to run away.

“Kaji, no,” Fiona muttered as she gripped her fork in a threatening manner.

“Do you mind if I ask what kind of person would you approve of for your sister?”

Seriously? Is this what most guys would talk about over lunch? Meh. Whatever floats his boat.

“He must never make her cry,” I answered in my typical neutral voice.

And beyond general awareness of the person she’s dating, it’s none of my business. Age, race, religion, gender- it doesn’t matter as long as she’s happy. But if they hurt her, it officially becomes my business.

For now, it’s the farthest thing down my list of concerns. We have more than enough to deal with. School, work, fans, akuma… Working up the courage to talk to Natalia in my case… And Blair never mentioned anyone she’s interested in. She hasn’t even experienced her ‘first love’ yet! That’s why I don’t bother to think about it too much.

Keagan pats my shoulder with a look of approval on his face.

“That’s a good answer, bro. I can respect that. I really do.”

I raised my eyebrow at Fiona, tilting my head to Keagan, hoping she’d explain Keagan logic.

“Kaji also has a sister he’s overprotective of. An older sister. One who happens to be a champion fencer who’s more than capable of taking care of herself and any jerk who breaks her heart.”

Ooh, way to hit a nerve there. The last part felt more like it was directed at Keagan than it was at clearing up my confusion. It sounded almost like a warning.

Keagan got the same vibe too as his russet eyes glared at Fiona, but the girl was completely unfazed and shrugged it off.

“Long story. Don’t ask,” Keagan stiffly muttered.

“Sure,” I solemnly nodded to my fellow protective brother. Even if our sisters are a force to be reckoned with, it wouldn’t be enough to stop us from looking out for them or going after the jerks who hurt them.

At this, Keagan dropped his glare and he’s back to being all smiles. Little did I know at that time, but this conversation was the start of my descent into madness.

_“{Miraculous! Simply the best! Up to the test when things go wrong!~}”_

And then someone’s phone rang. I was not surprised to see it was Keagan’s as he excitedly whips it out of his pocket. After one look into his phone, his smile drops and he hunches over the table staring at his phone in disbelief.

“Oh no…”

“What?” I asked worriedly.

Fiona was looking warily at Keagan, her lunch temporarily forgotten.

The three of us were still with suspense, until Keagan yelled the cause of his misery.

“I missed an akuma attack!”

Fiona and I did twin face-palms.

0-0-0-0-0

Half way through lunch break, Shizuke came back and offered to give Keagan and Fiona free desserts at the bakery as a peace offering for ditching them. He offered me some free desserts too, but I declined. I need my daily alone-time after socializing with his friends.

Right after that fateful lunch break that started it all, Keagan and Fiona approached me dragged me to the locker room after class to promise me that no matter what happens we’ll always be lunch buddies and to apologize in advance on Shizuke’s behalf.

“For what…?” I asked.

The duo took this moment to bicker on who’s going to answer me. I only got a few words out of their whispered fight such as ‘ _You’re stronger and more intimidating than me, you do it!_ ’ and ‘ _It’s your idea, take responsibility!_ ’ in between so much shoving and glaring. After one last icy cold glare from Fiona, Keagan finally gave in and took a step forward.

“Shizu believes your sister is Hawkmoth.”

Whuuut. How on earth did he jump to that conclusion?! If she was Hawkmoth, I would’ve known by now! There is no way my sister is secretly masquerading as a supervillain… She’d sooner gut herself with a spoon than go down the path of villainy! Our parents, bless their souls, would be so disappointed in her and she wouldn’t want that…

(There was a long pause as Blake quietly stood there, staring into space as he thought of every single reason he could think of as to why his twin isn’t secretly masquerading as a supervillain. Keagan and Fiona started getting uncomfortable with his lack of response.

“Uhh… Blake? Are you still in there?” Keagan worriedly asked, waving a hand in front of Blake’s unseeing eyes.

“I told you this was a bad idea! Now there’ll be two of them after Shizu,” Fiona said, readying herself to jump between the two boys if necessary.

“Relax Fuyu, he’s just shocked. Give him time to-”

“’time to-’ what?! Time to plan Shizu’s-“)

… There’s a lot of things I wanted to say about how impossible that is, but all I could say was a dumbfounded “Whyyy…?”

Keagan took a deep breath before his usually sunshiney smiley face drops to a flat scowl. I thought he was going to say something serious, but then his way of explaining things was just…

“Well, Shizu was like ‘ _There’s so much evidence that point to Blair being Hawkmoth. This can’t be a coincidence!_ ’” Keagan was trying his best to imitate Shizuke’s voice. He even mimed adjusting his glasses. “And I was like ‘ _Dude, there is no way Blair would be caught dead wearing the evil office lady look. She can’t possibly be Hawkmoth_ ’ because let’s be real, Blair would’ve made a much hotter and flashier villainess than Hawkmoth.”

I glared at Keagan as I cracked my knuckles as a wordless threat. I’m pretty sure I told him about how my dad, a police officer, taught me self-defence.

Fiona took the hint, slapped her hand over Keagan’s mouth and continued their exposition. “The point is: You know Shizu. The word ‘subtle’ doesn’t apply to him,” Fiona started shifting uncomfortably, probably trying to find just the right words to phrase their concerns without triggering me into protective brother mode. “One day, he might go overboard with this crack theory and do something that would piss off your sister. We’re here to prepare for damage control and we’re kinda hoping you’d help.”

“Sure. But if things get out of hand, I’ll side with my sister.”

Mostly because she can be scary when she wants to be and she plays dirty. I’ve learned it’s best to stay on her good side.

“Fair enough,” the pair said simultaneously.

And we shook on it. Just as we were about to walk out of school and pretend our conversation never happened, we saw _them_. Keagan, curious monkey that he is, pulled us back to hide behind the lockers so we can spy on them.

“Will you _please_ leave me alone?! I have homework to do!” Shizuke shouted, trying to walk around Blair but he’s no match for my nimble twin who effortlessly blocks his path without taking her eyes off him.

“No you don’t. We’re in the same class, remember?” Blair playfully smirked as she grabbed Shizuke by the neck tie and pulled him down so they were ‘growling’ face to ‘smirking’ face. “If you don’t have anything else to do today, why don’t we hang out?”

Shizuke’s face may have gone as red as my hair, but he still refused to back down. He fixed his glasses in a not-so-subtle attempt to cover his blush, pulled his tie away, folded his arms close to his chest and stood up straight to glare down at her. “What do you want?”

Wow. He’s actually kinda intimidating when he puts his foot down. He could give Fiona a run for her money.

Sadly, it did nothing but made my sister grin wider. “I want us to be better friends.~”

Shizuke is not amused. His blush is completely gone and his glare intensified, glasses gleaming menacingly. “Why now?”

“Oh nothing. It just occurred to me that we’ve been classmates for almost four months now and we still haven’t talked to each other much.~”

Shizuke folded his arms over his chest. “There are plenty of other people in class you could bother with this. Why _me_?”

“Why not?~”

They continued their stare off until the bell rang, signalling the end of club period. Shizuke took this as a signal to run away from my fearsome sister, all huffy and red faced. She didn’t try to stop him this time.

Blair on the other hand just stood there with an amused smile at Shizuke’s flustered retreating form as he disappeared within the crowd of athletes down the hall.

“Interesting,” I commented under my breath. I’ve never seen my sister go after a guy with no ulterior motive before. At least it seems like it. What could she possibly gain from the class president anyway? A free hall pass?

I was about to ask my fellow eavesdroppers about their opinions on this weird development, but one look at them and I got all the answers I need.

Fiona was pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation, while Keagan is taking pictures with his shipping grin on.

“Yeah, interesting indeed,” Keagan dreamily said with sparkling eyes.

And this is the moment I knew there was no turning back.

0-0-0-0-0

Since then, Blair started laying it thick with the flirts on Shizuke. With Shizuke’s loudness, it wasn’t long before everyone noticed. Just about everyone’s taken an interest in my sister’s strange fixation with the loudmouthed nerd. It’s like a rom-com came to life. I guess everyone’s a little interested in watching the ‘Beauty and the Geek’ trope playing out in real life, and there’s no one who embodies that trope better than Blair the popular model and Shizuke the class president.

As her brother, of course I was curious too.

“Is there something going on between you and Shizuke?”

I just had to ask her as we were walking back to the Liungs’ together. We rarely get to do this anymore because of our photo shoots and akumas attacking the city.

“Huh?” she asked, loosening her arms that were crossed behind her head.

She’s playing dumb. We’re twins, of course I could tell.

“You’ve been… how do I say this?” I ran my hand through my hair. How does one accuse his sister of flirting with weird guys without being insulting?

Blair started to snicker.

“Aww, is bwotha deawest scawed of wosing his sista to a boyfwend?” she mocked, putting both her hands over her heart and batting her eyes exaggeratedly.

“No! That’s not it! I was just wondering-“

“Chill bro. Shizuke doesn’t like me like that,” she barely held back a cackle when she said; “He thinks I’m Hawkmoth. Could you believe that?”

My eyes widen and I almost choked on thin air when she said that. She knew.

And she’s just laughing it off as if she isn’t offended at all.

“But what about you? You’ve been hitting on him lately. Do you like him?” Woops. I didn’t mean to blurt it out that bluntly, but I just did. Too late to take it back.

She went quiet for a second to absorb what I just said. My sister’s lips curled to a grin reminiscent of the Cheshire cat. “Maybe?” she said before going back to laughing.

I gave her the most unimpressed look I can muster.

I never got a straight answer from her, so I never bothered asking her about it again. If she really knew what she feels about the loudmouthed nerd, she would’ve just told me. Looking further into it will only result in a headache of confusing feelings I am not prepared to help her sort out.

But honestly, I wouldn’t mind if she dates Shizuke. After he gets it through his head that my sister isn’t Hawkmoth, I can see him treating my sister well. While Shizuke may be a hyperactive academic zealot, I think he’s a nice enough guy. He was nice enough to offer me free food. He’s probably the sort who’d remember dates and sincerely apologize if he’s ever late. Even better, he’s not the sort who’d just let Blair step all over him. He’s got a spine. He’d make a dedicated boyfriend. Keagan and Fiona will surely attest to that.

Most importantly, he can make her smile. Not the picture perfect smile she gives the photographers, or the smirk she gives everyone else. I’m talking about a more unguarded smile she has whenever she’s around people she’s comfortable with, like friends and family… or when she’s watching funny cat videos on Youtube.

I was suspicious at first about Blair being suddenly keen on befriending-slash-flirting-with Shizuke, but it wasn’t long before I just got used to it and stopped questioning it. Judging from the amused look on her face, she’s probably just doing it because she finds him amusing.

This is just a strange fling at most. For now, Shizuke Midorikawa is nothing more than her new entertainment system.

0-0-0-0-0

{LADYBLAIR}

About two weeks after _ShizuBlair_ – Keagan is a terrible influence for teaching me how to name relationships – started, _LadyBlair_ happened.

That was the sixth time an akuma went after one of us twins. To sum it up:

Charmer was the first, followed by the male equivalent, Stunner. They were after us on the same day. I learned that throwing food at an akuma made for a wonderful distraction and that Blair had terrible acting skills and lacked originality in terms of escape tactics.

After them was the Un-Secret Admirer, who announced to the entire city that I will be her boyfriend while she tied me up on a flag with a heart. I’ll give her an A for presentation, but an F in naming sense.

There was not a single man in Helios who didn’t pity Mr. Right. Even Ladybug winced when Blair kicked him in the nuts. While I still think he deserved it, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for the entitled jerk. Not that it would stop me from doing the same to him given the chance.

Poppyrazzi at least made some effort in naming. Keagan and I became friends after that particular attack. I now regret our friendship.

Stud Muffin was the latest monstrosity who followed this trend. Hawkmoth must’ve been running out of ideas to name him that.

After this akuma, a _shipping war_ – why do I even know this term? – in the Ladyblog forums somehow started. It was my sister versus Chat Noire over Ladybug.

As celebrities, this shouldn’t be new to us. We’ve paired up with different models whom, according to some photographers, we’d make an aesthetically pleasing couple with. We had to work with some of them more than others, to the point that there were a few articles of a rumored relationship going on - some of the rumors we even encouraged to promote ourselves. Blair took advantage of the hype to further her career and came off as a playful lovable flirt, while when I did the same, the magazines just dubbed me as a bad boy heartbreaker. The publishers aren’t even trying to be subtle about the double standards. Meh. We’re getting paid for this crud show anyway.

But I never would’ve dreamed that either of us would be _shipped_ – Keagan stop adding unnecessary words to my vocabulary – with a superhero! Much to my relief, it wasn’t me. The heroes are great and all, but I’m just not into them that way. But my sister is kinda available…

Considering how often we get targeted, I think it would be nice to have a superhero for a potential future brother-in-law. Blair and I have always been huge fans of superheroes, and not to mention… Ugh! Stop that thought. Blake, don’t fantasize about getting a superbro! Blair’s relationship with Ladybug is non-existent!

“You know Blair, if I didn’t already ship LadyNoire, I would’ve shipped Ladybug with you instead,” Keagan teased Blair.

I shot a glare at Keagan. It’s his fault for planting that idea in my head.

“Ah, but there’s a risk to dating a superhero that I’m just not willing to take. I wouldn’t want to be seen as the perfect hostage for the akuma to target and force Ladybug to give up his miraculous for me,” Blair answered like the professional she is.

Welp. She’s not interested. That’s the end of that.

0-0-0-0-0

{SHIZUCHAT}

Admittedly, it was kinda funny to watch Shizuke’s head turning to wherever Blair puts Keagan’s phone. It was kinda like watching a cat video... Coincidentally, the video Keagan’s phone is playing just happens to feature a certain cat themed heroine.

If someone asked me yesterday what I’d imagine Shizuke’s ideal girl would be like, I’m sure ‘wild, red haired girl in a skin-tight leather cat suit’ wouldn’t come to mind. But lo and behold! He couldn’t be more obvious if he tried.

This guy’s got a huge crush on Chat Noire. He even had the most lovesick look on his face that can rival even Ladybug’s. It’ll be a miracle for any girl to catch his attention, even if the girl in question happens to be a famous model.

Sorry Sis. You just lost to a crackship. This just sunk any chance of ShizuBlair ever sailing.

It will never be canon!

...

Keagan, why did you teach me your shipping ways?

0-0-0-0-0

{LADYNOIRESHIZUBLAIR}

And now for the day I regretfully learned of a concept I wish I can unlearn.

“Guys, have you heard that the heroes were having an argument yesterday?”

The five of us were having lunch together. For some reason, both Blair and Shizuke were out of it today and were napping on their sides of the table, their lunch completely forgotten at their side.

“Kaji, I was there right next to you. They were screaming about getting ice cream or something,” Fiona piped up.

I raised a brow at that.

The two sleepyheads finally woke up.

“Well, after asking around the Ladyblog for videos or sound clips of their argument, I compiled them based on the time they were recorded and this is what I got,” he explained, before playing the recording on his phone.

_“[-z-z- -z-zzz-- our bond!]”_  
“{No!}”  
“[-zz-- contacting –zzz--zz- --zz-z-!]”  
“{No!}”  
“[--zzz-z-- --z- --zz--z- together without anyone bothering us!]”  
“{No!}”  
“[-zz--zz-- -zz-z-- running away zz-z-z- -z-z-zzz- --z-z- -z--zz- zz--zzz-z- -z-z- -zzz--zz- -zz--zz-z-!]”  
“[---zz-- -z-z- -zz-z- hiding -zz--z-!]”  
“{No!}”  
“[Fans -z-z-zzz- -z-z-zzzz- -z-zz-- -z--zz- get ice cream together -z- -zzz-zz-z--!]”  
“{No!}” 

Half of the audio was hard to make out due to wind turbulence since the heroes were quickly swinging around the city. I could barely make out their words. The leather kitty ears must be functional if Chat Noire actually understood whatever Ladybug had to say for her to keep replying.

“Any idea what they could’ve been talking about?” Keagan asked.

That ‘shipping grin’ on his face tells me he already has a theory.

“… I have no idea what I was just listening to,” Fiona admitted.

“Kaji, maybe you should just leave them alone,” Shizuke groggily suggested as he fixed his glasses on his face, his usually properly combed hair and neatly pressed shirt in disarray.

“Yeah. If they have a problem, it’s their business,” Blair haggardly agreed, skin weirdly pale, dark circles under her eyes and her hair tied in a plain misaligned ponytail instead of her usual foxtail.

… Wow. For once, these two actually agreed on something.

“But that’s no fun. Besides, they’re just harmless theories. It’s not like I’m trying to unmask them or something,” Keagan whined.

I felt Blair stiffen from right next to me. Guess I’m not the only one dreading what Keagan’s latest shipping theory. I know for a fact that Blair hates LadyNoire.

“Spill,” I ordered with complete resignation, just to get this over with.

Keagan grinned my way. “Gladly.”

Keagan takes out a notebook and roughly sketches chibi style heads of the iconic hero duo. He drew a two way arrow between them with a broken heart above it.

“The heroic duo had an argument and possibly broke up…” he explained, as he drew another chibi head.

This time, the head looked like my sister. He drew a line to connect her and Ladybug with the arrow pointing towards Blair and labelled it with a heart with a question mark.

“… because Ladybug was in a rush to get back to famous teen model Blair.”

He then drew another arrow from Blair, this time the arrow is pointing towards the broken heart on LadyNoire. The arrow was labelled with a smiley.

“Blair was probably pretty happy that LadyNoire broke up because she’s an anti-shipper,” Keagan said with a pout.

Blair frowned back at him, but did nothing to deny his claim.

Keagan isn’t done yet. He was drawing yet another chibi head. Judging by the glasses, I think it’s supposed to be Shizuke. It’s hard to tell. Aside from his bluish black hair and glasses, Shizuke is pretty nondescript, especially when drawn even more simplified as a chibi.

He connected Blair’s chibi head to Shizuke’s with an arrow pointing towards Shizuke. This arrow is labelled with a winking smiley with a small floating heart. Flirting smiley?

“… But she’s more interested in class president Shizu than Ladybug.”

Shizuke’s glasses gleamed menacingly at Keagan.

Keagan drew another arrow, this time from Shizuke pointing to Blair. It’s labelled with an angry face.

“Shizu on the other hand is still holding a petty grudge towards Blair. And even if he does forgive her…”

Keagan added another arrow, from Shizuke to Chat Noire. This one is labelled with a heart.

“… He’ll never look her way because he’s too besotted with Chat Noire.”

“HEY!” Shizuke piped up with his face turning red, standing up with his hands slammed on the table. His voice actually cracked. “DON’T TELL OTHER PEOPLE THAT!”

“Wait, was that supposed to be a secret?” I couldn’t help but retort out loud. With how obvious he was, I thought he just didn’t care who knew!

“Apparently, yes,” Blair helpfully answered.

“Shh…” Fiona effortlessly pulled Shizuke back to his seat with one hand before rubbing circles around his back in a comforting manner. “Everyone already knows, Shizu. It’s no big deal. No one’s judging you.”

Shizuke grumpily scowled.

“Where was I? Oh, yeah,” Keagan said, drawing another arrow from Shizuke towards the broken heart on LadyNoire. The arrow was labelled with a confused face. “While he does have a huge crush on Chat Noire, he ships LadyNoire, so he has very mixed feelings about their break up.”

He drew another arrow, pointing from Chat Noire to Ladybug. This one is labelled with the word ‘tsundere’.

“Chat Noire still has feelings for Ladybug, but is upset with him.”

Another arrow is added, this time pointing from Ladybug back to Chat Noire. This one is labelled with a heart, this time with polka dots. And antennae.

“While Ladybug feels bad about upsetting her and is trying to make amends so they can get back together. That’s why they were arguing all around the city. It makes perfect sense!  
He wanted to fix their bond.  
He’s been trying to contact her but she won’t pick up her phone.  
He wants to go somewhere together where no one can bother them.  
He promises Chat Noire that he’ll never run away from her to be with a model.  
That she doesn’t have to go hiding from him and seek comfort from fan boys.  
He was offering her a date over ice cream as a peace offering to fix their relationship!”

Keagan was standing and panting by the time he was finished explaining his theory.

All he got from us was awkward silence. He gloomily went back to his seat and picked on his lunch, muttering about missing his internet friends who appreciate his fan theories better.

Blair and Shizuke simultaneously laid their heads down on the table and continued their nap. Fiona shrugged and continued eating lunch. Sometimes, I envy how she can just roll with the craziness surrounding her two best friends.

“Well that was something,” I muttered to myself, still absorbing the whole theory.

The love square blew my mind.

It was something so complicated, so mind boggling… And yet I can’t look away.

It’s like one of those cheesy soap operas. It annoys me to death and I would want nothing more than to smash my head against a wall from the sheer absurdity of it all. Everyone involved in that mess is an idiot!

At the same time, it’s so fascinating. The possibilities, the people involved… I feel like I want to root for them. I want everyone involved to find their happiness. I want to watch it to the end. See what happens next. Where it goes.

Four people. Four ships.

It’s beautiful. It’s frustrating!

The worst part of it all is that my sister’s involved, and yet I’m rooting for Ladybug the most. He loves Chat Noire! He deserves to be happy! He saved our lives! LadyNoire should be canon!

I am trash.

No, I am worse than trash.

It made me wish for a jar of brain bleach.

CURSE YOU KEAGAN GERALD AURELIO ASHWORTH FOR INTRODUCING ME TO SHIPPING!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this brings the end of the chapters that do nothing but establish characters. Yay! It feels like I've reached a milestone, LOL.
> 
> Does this story even have a plot? Answer: Probably. About as much as the canon show does, except with more chronology (save for a few flashback episodes, like Origins. I'm still ironing that out). The next chapters will follow a more or less similar format where there's a group of chapters following something resembling a plot with the POV being passed between the two main protags like a game of hot potato and a bonus chapter from an alternate POV to wrap it all up, lasting for about 3-5 chapters on average estimate. Updates will be sporadic, I can only promise that once I start an arch, I will finish it.


	8. Character Profiles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here are the profiles! Still have no idea how to post pictures here, but at least I learned how to add a link! Yay! I'll be linking some of my art for this fic from time to time. I tend to draw pics when drafting out plots and stuff so, you can expect a few more in the future. I'm not planning on making pictures for every arch though, but I will try to make concept art for the main characters. On another note, these OCs actually had their own story that I'm too lazy to actually write. World-building isn't exactly my forte. So one could say that I basically put them in an ML AU, which is why the ML characters are listed as 'counterparts', while there's another section dedicated to 'character inspirations' because some characters from other shows have a strong influence in forming my OCs personalities.
> 
> Update 12/03/2018: FINALLY LEARNED TO POST PICS HERE! Yay me! But I kept the link and the notes before because HTML format is confusing and I'm not sure how to add spacing... I have plans on adding Blake, Keagan, and Fiona's pictures eventually.

**Shizuke Midorikawa**  
**Age:** 15  
**Birthdate:** May 4  
**Canon Counterparts:** Marinette, Sabrina, Max  
**Other Character Inspirations:** Iida Tenya (My Hero Academia) – do I need to explain this??, Peter Parker (Spider-Man) – the parallels with Peter Parker are more obvious with Shizuke than with Marinette  
**Tropes:** The Everyman, Scary Shiny Glasses, Academic Athlete, Hot-Blooded, Gibberish of Love, In Love With Your Alter Ego, Red Oni  
**Notes:**  
One of the two protagonists. A hardworker and kinda obsessed with doing well at anything, as he’s actually more of a jack-of-trades. He’s strong, but not stronger than Fiona. He’s smart, but not smarter than Keagan. He makes up for it with diligence and perseverance. The reliable one and a busybody, he’s a straight-A student who’d always run for class president and participate in school activities (mostly to collect extra credit to make up for his absences and keep up his scholarship). Originally from Japan, he and his family originally moved to Helios to take care of his injured great-aunt/grandmother. He just ended up staying because unlike in Japan, he has friends in Helios and his parents thought he’d be happier there.

**Blair Crawford**  
**Age:** 16  
**Birthdate:** June 13  
**Canon Counterparts:** Adrien, Lila, Alya  
**Other Character Inspirations:** Blue (Pokemon Special) – she’s actually my main inspiration for Blair since I was obsessed with Pokemon Special when I first came up with Blair, Mary Jane Watson, Felicia Hardy, and Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man) – just like how Adrien is kinda based on these three ladies Blair takes after them too but with more emphasis on MJ and Felicia  
**Tropes:** Cats Are Snarky, Ascended Fan Girl, Combat Pragmatist (except when someone she cares about is involved), Casual Danger Dialogue, Oblivious to Love, Urban Legend Love Life, Blue Oni  
**Notes:**  
Shares the spotlight with Shizuke and is set up to be his ultimate foil. She’s good at thinking on her feet and gathering information when she’s paying attention, but is dense when it comes to romance. She models mostly for the money to help out the Liungs for taking her and her brother in. She has no interest in showbiz. Sells the image of a playful flirt who hits on any guy she fancies, even though she has yet to experience her first love. Is an average student all around, but she repeated a year due to complications with her living conditions after her parents died. She’s overprotective of her twin brother even when she finds him annoying sometimes, and sees him as the only family she has left, even though the Liung genuinely care about them.

 **Blake Crawford**  
**Age:** 16  
**Birthdate:** June 13  
**Canon Counterparts:** Adrien, Nathanael  
**Other Character Inspirations:** Dipper Pines (Gravity Falls) – the awkward twin who has trouble confessing to the girl he likes and is a total dork, Silver (Pokemon Special) – stoic and broody… or at least, that’s how he comes off as to most people. He also has a close relationship with the Blue-expy-character except there are no implied romantic feelings, Zuko (Avatar the Last Airbender) – I’m mostly referring to late Book 2 Zuko, the one who fumbled around on his date with Jin. Good times.  
**Tropes:** Adorkable, Sibling Yin Yang (with who else?), Shrinking Violet, First-Person Smartass, Urban Legend Love Life, Can’t Spit It Out, Not So Above It All  
**Notes:**  
Blair’s twin brother, they’ve always been inseparable… then the akuma started attacking the city and Blair started disappearing from time to time, much to his eternal stress. A reputed bad boy and a heartbreaker, but is actually a shy dork who can’t ask out the girl he likes even after months of mental preparation.

 **Keagan Gerald Aurelio-Ashworth**  
**Age:** 15  
**Birthdate:** August 21  
**Canon Counterparts:** Alya, Chloe, Kim  
**Other Character Inspirations:** Harry Osborn/Green Goblin (Spider-Man) – the rich smart friend of the nerd who’s secretly a bug hero but is that where the similarities end? (who am I kidding? He’s totally gonna get his akuma episode and be a villain for a day), Jimmy Olsen (Superman) – the cheerful reporter BFF of the main hero, Anna (Frozen) - while it's not shown yet, he is sort of an Anna to his older sister's Elsa, and arguably, Fuyu's his Kristoff... Personality-wise, he's also bubbly and a hopeless romantic.  
**Tropes:** Intrepid Reporter, Shipper On Deck, Leeroy Jenkins, Hero Worshipper, Masculine Girl Feminine Guy (with Fiona), Hidden Depths (who knew the infamous shipper wouldn’t be supportive of his sister’s love life?), Brilliant But Lazy (implied, the only reason Shizuke has better grades than him is because his focus is elsewhere *cough!* Ladyblog *cough!*)  
**Notes:**  
One of Shizuke’s best friends. The Ladyblogger and an avid shipper. His curiosity often leads him into trouble, which Fiona and Shizuke often had to bail him out of. As the mayor’s son and coming from one of the richest families in the city, Keagan can be a bit spoiled cause he’s used to things going his way but he’s still a sweet guy. 

**Fiona Kuznetsov**  
**Age:** 15  
**Birthdate:** December 14  
**Canon Counterparts:** Nino, Alix, Juleka  
**Other Character Inspirations:** Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist) – kinda stoic and acts as a bodyguard for Kaji. Sapphire Birch (Pokemon Special) - a very manly girl who took several levels in badass so she can protect the people she cares about. More of this will be explained in her backstory. Arguably, Kaji's the Ruby to her Sapphire. Toph Bei Fong (Avatar the Last Airbender) - cute snarky badass little rich girl with a rough and tough attitude and isn't a huge fan of being a proper lady, need I say more?  
**Tropes:** Bifauxnen, Only Sane Man, Deadpan Snarker, Tsundere, Savvy Guy Energetic Girl (a gender inverted version with Keagan and to some degree, Shizuke), Odd Friendship (with Shizuke, a punk and a nerd), Goth  
**Notes:**  
Shizuke’s other best friend. With a hotblooded academic zealot and a blogger with zero survival instinct as friends, she often has to act like the rock to keep them stable, not that she minds looking out for them. She fancies herself as a knight or something. A tsundere. She’s the daughter of a famous jewelry designer.

 

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Here's a link to some concept art for Shizuke Midorikawa (feat. Fiona Kuznetsov) and Blair Crawford:

<https://chaoticinfluencerthing.tumblr.com/post/179947203497/concept-art-for-my-fanfiction-at-ao3-the-hijacked>

Design Notes:  
-In retrospect, I think it would've been better if Shizuke's black buttoned shirt came with small spots but I'm too lazy to add that in hahaha maybe next time?  
-And Blair!Chat's superhero costume isn't finalized so I just used Adrien's Chat Noir costume as a stand-in. It's kinda unfair to change Ladybug's costume but not change the Chat Noire's.  
-I'm not good at whole body shots 


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